@article {Abir2022,
	title = {An energizing role for motivation in information-seeking during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic},
	journal = {Nature Communications},
	volume = {13},
	year = {2022},
	month = {4},
	pages = {2310},
	abstract = {<p>
	The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of understanding and managing information seeking behavior. Information-seeking in humans is often viewed as irrational rather than utility maximizing. Here, we hypothesized that this apparent disconnect between utility and information-seeking is due to a latent third variable, motivation. We quantified information-seeking, learning, and COVID-19-related concern (which we used as a proxy for motivation regarding COVID-19 and the changes in circumstance it caused) in a US-based sample ( n  = 5376) during spring 2020. We found that self-reported levels of COVID-19 concern were associated with directed seeking of COVID-19-related content and better memory for such information. Interestingly, this specific motivational state was also associated with a general enhancement of information-seeking for content unrelated to COVID-19. These effects were associated with commensurate changes to utility expectations and were dissociable from the influence of non-specific anxiety. Thus, motivation both directs and energizes epistemic behavior, linking together utility and curiosity.
</p>
},
	issn = {2041-1723},
	doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-30011-5},
	author = {Yaniv Abir and Caroline B. Marvin and Camilla van Geen and Maya Leshkowitz and Ran R. Hassin and Daphna Shohamy}
}
