Departmental Papers (ASC)
Document Type
Technical Report
Date of this Version
7-2017
Publication Source
Psychological Science
Volume
28
Issue
7
Start Page
851
Last Page
861
DOI
10.1177/0956797617695073
Abstract
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.
Copyright/Permission Statement
Baek, E.C., Scholz, C., O'Donnell, M.B., & Falk, E.B., The Value of Sharing Information: A Neural Account of Information Transmission, Psychological Science 28, no. 7: pp. 851-861. Copyright © 2017 Association for Psychological Science. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
This is a pre-publication version. The final version is available at
Keywords
neuroimaging, cognitive processes, social interaction, social behavior, mass media, open materials
Recommended Citation
Baek, E. C., Scholz, C., O'Donnell, M. B., & Falk, E. B. (2017). The Value of Sharing Information: A Neural Account of Information Transmission. Psychological Science, 28 (7), 851-861. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617695073
Embargo Date
8-1-2018
Included in
Cognition and Perception Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Community Psychology Commons, Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons, Neurology Commons, Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons, Neurosciences Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Social Psychology Commons
Date Posted: 15 June 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.