According to a new study, our brain reward system act on the new information in the same way as food or money. We can say that you also like this article.
This study also explains why people can’t stop checking phone continually even there is not important anything.
The paper published under the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that the brain reacts on information as it does for money.
It also does some groundwork for untanglingthe neuroscience behind how we consume information.
To understand more about the neuroscience of curiosity, researchers scanned the brain of participants while they gambling.
Researchers presented a series of lotteries and ask them to decide how much they are willing to pay more about chances of winning.
In some cases the information was valuable and some cases in information weren’t worth that much.
Participants make rational choices based on economical value (how much money they will win) of the information.
Higher the stakes higher the level of courisity in the information whether they play or not.
Researchers said that this behavior that people acquired information not only for their actual benefits but also on anticipation of benefits. For example, we want to know whether we received a great job offer, even we have no intenstion of job.
Researchers analyze fMRI scans and found that information about winning games odds activate the brain region that involves in valuation, the same dopamine-producing reward areas that food, drug or money activate.
Hsu says, “We can look into the brain and tell how much someone wants a piece of information, and then translate that brain activity into monetary amounts”
That is why people are susceptible to clickbait.