The Value of Sharing Information: A Neural Account of Information Transmission

Humans routinely share information with one another. What drives this behavior? We used neuroimaging to test an account of information selection and sharing that emphasizes inherent reward in self-reflection and connecting with other people. Participants underwent functional MRI while they considere...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2017-07, Vol.28 (7), p.851-861
Main Authors: Baek, Elisa C., Scholz, Christin, O'Donnell, Matthew Brook, Falk, Emily B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Brain Mapping - methods
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition - physiology
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Functional Neuroimaging - methods
Humans
Information dissemination
Information Dissemination - methods
Information sharing
Interpersonal Relations
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Mass media
Medical imaging
Neuroimaging
News
Regions
Reward
Selfreflection
Sharing
Social Behavior
Social interaction
Valuation
Young Adult
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Summary:Humans routinely share information with one another. What drives this behavior? We used neuroimaging to test an account of information selection and sharing that emphasizes inherent reward in self-reflection and connecting with other people. Participants underwent functional MRI while they considered personally reading and sharing New York Times articles. Activity in neural regions involved in positive valuation, self-related processing, and taking the perspective of others was significantly associated with decisions to select and share articles, and scaled with preferences to do so. Activity in all three sets of regions was greater when participants considered sharing articles with other people rather than selecting articles to read themselves. The findings suggest that people may consider value not only to themselves but also to others even when selecting news articles to consume personally. Further, sharing heightens activity in these pathways, in line with our proposal that humans derive value from self-reflection and connecting to others via sharing.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797617695073