Media release

From: The Royal Society

When knowledge hurts: Humans are willing to receive pain for obtaining non-instrumental information

Summary: Humans and other animals have a strong “desire to know”, and research has suggested that receiving information might be a similar experience to receiving rewards. In this study, we investigated whether human participants accept painful heat stimuli in exchange for information about the exact amounts they win in a series of small lotteries. Importantly, this information was “non-instrumental”, meaning that it could not be used to change the odds. We show that participants often accepted even high pain to obtain this useless information. This suggests that the “pain of not knowing” might sometimes be more aversive than actual physical pain.

Know pain, know gain – Humans are willing to accept pain to obtain even useless information. Researchers investigated whether human participants accept painful heat stimuli in exchange for non-instrumental information about the exact amounts they could win in a series of small lotteries. Participants often accepted high pain to obtain information even though it could not be used to change the odds, suggesting the “pain of not knowing” might sometimes be more aversive than physical pain.