Vellani, Valentina;
(2022)
Deciding when to seek and share information.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
People constantly need to decide when to seek and share information. This thesis investigates which factors shape the decision to seek information and to share it with others. People prefer to seek positive information and this preference is coded in mesolimbic areas. In Chapter 2, I directly investigated the causal role of dopamine in shaping valenced information-seeking and found that L-DOPA administration increases seeking of negative information. Previous studies suggest that other variables such as uncertainty and instrumental value of information also shape information-seeking. In Chapter 3, I investigated how the variables that are found to be important for seeking information are integrated to make a sharing decision. I found that people prefer to share information that is positive, useful and when uncertainty is high, suggesting that people rely on their own information-seeking preferences to solve information-sharing problems. So far, I focused how people decide to share accurate information. In Chapter 4, I tested how people share accurate and inaccurate information when perceived accuracy is enhance via repetition. I found that people were more likely to share statements they had previously been exposed to. This relationship was mediated by perceived accuracy, that is, people were more likely to share repeated information because they perceived it as more accurate. Millions of pieces of information are sought and shared every day. Understanding how people make these decisions can improve the efficacy of knowledge distribution. The studies presented in this thesis provide new insight on the variables that shape information seeking and sharing.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Deciding when to seek and share information |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10159368 |
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