scholarly journals Why Do People Seek Information? The Role of Personality Traits and Situation Perception

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley Jach ◽  
Colin G. DeYoung ◽  
Luke D. Smillie
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Intellectual Engagement ◽  
Outcome Information ◽  
Uncertainty Intolerance ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Available Information

The opportunity to learn new knowledge is ever present. How do people decide if information has sufficient value to counteract the cost of obtaining it? We proposed a conceptual model of information seeking that emphasizes how personality traits and perceptions of situations may influence motivations to seek information to explore (related to trait curiosity and openness/intellect, and situations evoking more positive emotions and opportunities for intellectual engagement) or feel safe (related to trait uncertainty intolerance and neuroticism, and situations that evoke more negative emotions). Across two studies (N = 436; N = 316), information seeking was assessed with two widely-used paradigms (advance knowledge of a reward outcome and answers to trivia questions), as well as two variations of the trivia paradigm in Study 1. In all contexts, the available information was non-instrumental, having no practical utility within the context of the task. Consistent with our proposed exploration pathway, curiosity and openness/intellect predicted the choice to seek information for trivia and related stimuli, but not reward-outcome stimuli, and trivia stimuli were generally rated as more intellectually engaging, more positive, and less negative than reward-outcome stimuli. However, evidence for the safety pathway was only partially in line with predictions, with uncertainty intolerance predicting reward-outcome information seeking in Study 2 only. We consider possible modifications to our initial model and implications for information-seeking research. These studies provide a proof of concept that people display both trait- and context-dependent preferences for non-instrumental information, both of which are commonly overlooked in studies of information seeking.

scholarly journals Occupational Stress and Its Economic Cost in Hong Kong: The Role of Positive Emotions

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (22) ◽  
pp. 8601
Author(s):  
Oi Ling Siu ◽  
Cary L. Cooper ◽  
Lara C. Roll ◽  
Carol Lo
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Occupational Stress ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Job Stressors ◽  
Organizational Constraints ◽  
The Cost

There has been less research on the costs of occupational stress attributed to certain job stressors in Chinese contexts. This study identified and validated common job stressors and estimated the economic cost in Hong Kong. The role of positive emotions in alleviating the economic costs of job stressors was also examined. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted. The findings obtained from five focus group discussions and a survey validated five common job stressors: Job insecurity; quantitative workload; organizational constraints; interpersonal conflicts; and work/home interface. A total of 2511 employees were surveyed, with 2032 valid questionnaires returned (925 males, 1104 females, and 3 unidentified, whose ages ranged from 18 to 70 years). The economic costs were estimated by combining the costs of absenteeism, presenteeism, and medical expenses. Absenteeism mainly caused by job stressors of the work/home interface, job insecurity, and quantitative workload accounted for an annual economic cost of HK$550 million to HK$860 million. The annual economic cost due to presenteeism mainly caused by job stressors of job insecurity, interpersonal conflict, quantitative workload, and organizational constraints ranged from HK$1.373 billion to HK$2.146 billion. The cost of medical treatments associated with occupational stress was HK$2.889 billion to HK$4.083 billion. Therefore, the total annual economic cost of occupational stress was approximately HK$4.81 billion to HK$7.09 billion. Positive emotions, representing a less explored individual factor in the cost of occupational stress studies, was found to be negatively correlated with presenteeism and buffered the negative impact of job stressors on absenteeism. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Leadership and Information Processing

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 357-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Kastenmüller ◽  
Tobias Greitemeyer ◽  
Stefanie Zehl ◽  
Andrew J. Tattersall ◽  
Helen George ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
Selective Information Processing ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Selective Information

There is a large body of research showing that people selectively prefer information that supports their decisions and opinions, and avoid conflicting information (selective information processing). Three studies were conducted to examine how the different leadership styles of supervisors influence subordinates’ selective information processing (i.e., the evaluation, seeking, and conveying of information). Studies 1 and 2 indicate that students in the role of subordinates who were exposed to transformational supervisors process information in a more balanced way than do those who were led by a transactional supervisor. Study 3 was carried out with professionals and showed that transformational leadership was negatively correlated with selective information seeking and conveying. This finding was mediated by the experience of positive emotions. Transactional leadership, by contrast, was not significantly associated with selective information processing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The role of affect in feelings of obligation

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefen Beeler-Duden ◽  
Meltem Yucel ◽  
Amrisha Vaish
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Sense Of Obligation

Abstract Tomasello offers a compelling account of the emergence of humans’ sense of obligation. We suggest that more needs to be said about the role of affect in the creation of obligations. We also argue that positive emotions such as gratitude evolved to encourage individuals to fulfill cooperative obligations without the negative quality that Tomasello proposes is inherent in obligations.

Role of Coping and Personality Traits Among LGB Individuals

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer C. Johnson ◽  
Caroline H. Stroud ◽  
Robert J. Cramer ◽  
James W. Crosby ◽  
Craig E. Henderson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits
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