When it comes to their property, people often act irrationally: they regard things as more valuable just because they own them, and grieve over a loss more than they enjoy an equivalent gain. These cognitive distortions, the possession effect and loss aversion, occur with objects or money, but also when it comes to one’s own knowledge. This is reported by researchers from the Universities of Innsbruck and Pittsburgh. Conclusion: We treat information similar to property.
Yana Litovsky’s team had 400 subjects decide whether they wanted to find out three facts immediately or whether they would rather wait so that they might “gain” more information later. The chances of success varied. The competition was more likely to be chosen by those who subjectively suffered no loss as a result – which was manipulated quite subtly: everyone was to choose between three and four bits of information; However, the researchers had previously explained to some that the three facts were actually reserved for them. The people concerned had the impression that this knowledge “already belonged” to them. Then they should choose between these three or the other four pieces of information. Of those who had already been suggested an entitlement to the smaller knowledge package, 68 percent opted out of four pieces of information – presumably because it would have felt like a loss of intellectual property. Of the others, on the other hand, more than half chose the four-pack.
Behavioral economists mostly see the value of information in the fact that it can help you to make better decisions. The current study, however, dealt with facts without any practical use (e.g. the answer to the question: »In which country is the unicorn national animal?«). Language reveals that information represents a kind of property for us and that this alone increases its value: “We often talk about knowledge as if we were consuming it,” explains co-author Christopher Olivola.