Using social signals communicating information value to change curiosity

People have better memory for information they encounter when curious as compared to information they encounter when less curious. Given the importance of curiosity for learning, a key goal is to understand the conditions that facilitate curiosity. Inspired by social norms theory, which emphasizes that other people’s opinions can change the value of a wide range of objects, ideas and behaviors, the current study aimed to change curiosity by providing social signals communicating information value. Using a within-person design, participants (n = 300; mean age = 45.55 years) completed a Trivia Guessing Task in which trivia questions were presented under three conditions: high social value, low social value, and no indication of social value. During the task, participants rated their curiosity to know the answer to each question before they were shown the correct answers. Following a distraction phase, participants then completed a surprise Trivia Memory Task that tested their recall of the answers to the previously viewed trivia questions. Results indicated that, compared to trivia questions with no indication of social value, participants reported higher curiosity for trivia questions accompanied by a high social value signal, and lower curiosity for trivia questions accompanied by a low social value signal. Importantly, participants, across all social value conditions, were more likely to accurately recall the answers to trivia questions they reported being more curious to know the answer to during the Trivia Guessing Task. Taken together, social signals of value affect curiosity and do not undermine the memory-facilitating effect of curiosity.