How social value guides curiosity, information search, and memory in younger and older adults

Epistemic curiosity, or the desire for new knowledge, benefits emotional, physical, and cognitive health across the lifespan. Initially believed to be solely intrinsically motivated, recent work has found that extrinsic motivators can also drive epistemic curiosity. One example of the latter is the perceived social value of information, such as popularity metrics on social media platforms (e.g., upvotes on Reddit.com). However, it remains unclear whether the influence of social value cues extends to curiosity-related behaviors, such as information search and memory, and whether these effects vary with age. The current study was designed to fill these knowledge gaps. In two experiments, younger and older adults (total N = 367) rated their curiosity for user-generated trivia questions that varied in social value (high or low upvote counts on Reddit.com). Upvote counts were either visible (upvote visible condition) or not visible (upvote invisible condition). In Experiment 1, participants had the opportunity to reveal the answer to each trivia question, a measure of information seeking. Although social value increased curiosity, it did not influence information seeking. In Experiment 2, answer reveal was mandatory, and participants received a surprise recall test for the answers. Social value again increased curiosity, particularly for younger adults, but had no influence on memory. Overall, these findings replicate social-value effects on curiosity in younger and older adults, but they provide no evidence that social value motivates information search or episodic memory. These findings highlight the limits of extrinsic influences on epistemic behaviors across the adult lifespan.