All humans are curious, but some more than others. The difference may determine whether we buy and read the same kinds of books we’ve always read or whether we’re more likely to branch out into something completely different.
A new study scoured the book buying histories and ratings of more than 35,000 Amazon shoppers and found that while some buy books that are similar to others they have enjoyed, people who were more curious were more likely to try something completely different. People who were curious were also more likely to enjoy an unexpected hit.
“Curiosity shapes how we seek knowledge and entertainment, revealing a fundamental way that humans seek information,” said Richard Huskey, the study’s senior author and a professor of communication at UC Davis.
The study was published in PNAS NEXUS in July with lead author Xuanjun Gong, currently an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, who conducted the research as a Ph.D. student in Huskey’s Cognitive Communication Science Lab at UC Davis. Additional authors are Cuihua Shen, professor of communication at UC Davis, and Erie Boorman, an associate professor of psychology at UCLA.
How people choose something new
This study is among the first to show that seeking involves the same mechanisms as foraging for food. The study showed that in both cases, a person can choose between one option that has produced high value in the past and a vast array of second options that are unknown but that might offer a higher reward.
Trying new restaurants can be hit-or-miss, and so can books. The study asks why some people try something new while others stay with something they liked before.
The study comprised two parts. First, the team conducted a detailed analysis of more than 2 million book purchases and reviews from the database of 35,000 buyers on Amazon to identify how people choose books to buy.
Second, they tested this decision-making process with 248 participants who would choose a book to buy from among 225 options. In this second task, participants made decisions with only descriptions of the books and no influence from marketing or book suggestions driven by an algorithm.
The analysis showed that choosing a book is a structured decision-making process very similar to how people make decisions while foraging. It also found that participants were most likely to try a book that was very different than others they had enjoyed and they were also more likely to enjoy it.
“Curiosity not only makes you seek out more novel information but also seems to amplify the likelihood that you enjoy that information,” said Huskey.
A possible evolutionary foundation for choosing
The study found that foraging for resources like food and water and choosing a book to read both rely on the same types of decision-making process. Both involve reinforcement learning, a trial-and-error process of getting more of what you want and less of what you don’t.
Both also involve generalization, which is using past experience to guide future decisions. These similarities suggest that both processes may have a foundation in human evolution, according to the researchers.
"Choosing a book to read is a lot like deciding where to eat," said Gong, the study’s lead author. "Curiosity not only drives how much we enjoy the books we pick but also determines our willingness to explore new titles."
The study might eventually provide empirical support for product recommendation algorithms on sites like Amazon and even social media platforms that are informed by people’s curiosity rather than past purchases alone.
“While our study focused specifically on book selection as a form of information seeking, we anticipate that similar patterns may extend to choices in other domains, such as social media, film and news,” said Huskey.
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