Tap Seniors’ Curiosity with Prior Knowledge

When someone’s in the midst of making a consumer decision, they are likely to be motivated to gather information directly relevant to that decision. Another motivation for gathering information is curiosity. Even if separated in time and intent from a particular consumer decision, what’s learned via curiosity lingers in the background and therefore can influence choices. Knowing how curious consumers seek information helps persuasion agents be more effective.
     Researchers at University of Southampton, University of Stirling, University of Reading, Kochi University of Technology, and University of Tübingen say the how depends on age. When motivated by curiosity, younger people seek to broaden their existing knowledge, while older people seek to deepen their existing knowledge. The researchers recommend that when aiming to implant information in the brain of an older adult, we present the information as providing greater depth about topics we discover are already familiar to that older adult.
     The researchers base these conclusions on their study conducted at the London Science Museum. Visitors passing by a group of computer terminals were invited to select a theme they were interested in from a set of five—such as “Mythical Beasts” or “Lesser Explored Countries”—and learn about that theme. Once choosing the theme, the study participant was presented with a set of topics about it and asked to use the computer to display facts about one of the topics. Following this, each participant could decide to learn more about the topic, change the topic to learn about, or end the inquiry altogether.
     The participants ranged in age from 12 to 79 years. Measures of interest and curiosity were gathered, along with noting each participant’s pattern of information pursuit. Data analysis showed that interest and curiosity were closely related and that the pattern of seeking information was related to age, as predicted.
     Prior studies have provided supportive findings. Researchers at University of Cincinnati, University of Florida, and University of Mississippi offered choices of a variety of music samples to study participants. Novices accepted a few new songs in a multitude of genres. On the other hand, experts, who we’d expect to be older than the novices, accepted a greater number of songs solely from one or a limited number of genres in which they considered themselves to have some expertise. An explanation for the effect is that older consumers place greater importance on screening possibilities for consistency with their existing interests, values, and needs.

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