In this paper, the aim was to provide the reader a wider perspective to decision-making in terms of information acquisition. The context used in the study was mainly based on behavioral economics approach of social sciences.
In the traditional expected utility theory, people try to maximize their objective utility function which is defined by their own personal preferences. Those preferences are valued as material outcomes. In this study, the approach for the utility is slightly different. The study uses the specific utility theory, ‘utility of wisdom’, as its theoretical background. According to the theory, utility depends not only on the preferences valued as material outcomes but also on the intrinsic cognitive valuations. In this specific utility theory, the main factors determining the utility are subjective probability and motivated attention weight vector.
The study also includes experimental part, which tests the information acquisition in a laboratory setting. The aim was to examine experimentally, whether the beliefs define the information acquisition and do people expose themselves to positive or negative information based on their beliefs (attitude) and actions (threshold).
In the experiment, the setting was created so that it follows a minimum-effort game describing the daily situation which people often facing, the lack of time for putting the maximal effort on information acquisition. This study tested the information acquisition of a certain information, the attitude and the threshold related to the subject of the information and other variables that had impact toward desire for information. The attitude and the threshold were tested as subjective valuation by participants. In this study the subject was chocolate which in turn relates to health decisions and is considered being as indulgement substance.
The analysis for the experiment data was conducted by using quantitative methods, by utilizing statistical analysis tool, the R. The analysis of the data was separated into two different parts:
The first part consisted of creating the best fitting linear regression models and testing them for estimating the most accurate results defining the information acquisition as an outcome variable. The number of articles was set as a dependent variable defining the information acquisition.
The second part consisted of a binary dependent variable (the information type) and the logistic regression model.
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The statistical analysis of the experiment data showed that the attitude and the threshold were not significant variables with the confidence level of 95%. Although, both were estimated of having slightly negative impact on the information acquisition. This could be interpreted so, that the use of chocolate and positive beliefs decreases the willingness to acquire information of the indulgent substance which is used (possibly by overconfidence or by ignorance). This could mean that people do not want to attain the information that might supply a surprise for them. The conclusion follows the theory of utility of wisdom, where the prediction shows the desire for information to be increasing as the valence of anticipated outcomes increases. In other words, the person is more willing to acquire information when the valence (the combined value of definitive answer and the instrumental value) increases. In our case where the possible overconfidence or ignorance could be valid, the valence decreases and therefore people do not want to attain information because they see it might decrease their situational utility.
As estimation from the model addresses, that there can be seen more significant impact from other variables such as hunger having a small positive impact on information acquisition, although not being either significant variable in the 95% confidence level when adjusted with other variables such as attitude and threshold. The research also concludes the title type as having an impact on information acquisition which was estimate as being the most significant variable among the tested ones.
People seem to be stimulated to attain information by negative information or even more stimulated by positive information of chocolate but less stimulated by neutral information, although the type of the information was not significant in the 95% confidence level when adjusted with other variables.
Unfortunately, the experiment did not attain enough participants and the sample size ended up being rather small why the significance does not appear easily in 95% confidence level.
In terms of providing information about health issues, we should think about the attention in a way that the information is designed to be the most “indulging” way for people having the most desire for knowledge. If we supply the information that does not raise emotions, then our goal is not met if we want to increase the motivated attention.
According to the utility of wisdom-theory, the more aware people are about things the more they would pay attention and the more clarity of the information pieces they would gain, the better they will understand the meaning of wisdom and go towards it. In this discussion, the society’s norms and values play a major role how people are constructing their beliefs and the motivated attention bending on those beliefs. When taking this thought further, we can next find out ways which information
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stimulate people’s attention the most and guides them to be proactive in their actions parallel reducing the costs of welfare state.
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