Open AccessIs an Idea Different from Cake: Can You Have It and Eat It, Too? A Violation of Permanence in Information Consumption
Author(s) -
Shu Li,
Yueran Li,
Yin Su,
LiLin Rao
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0041490
Subject(s) - information exchange , consumption (sociology) , feature (linguistics) , affect (linguistics) , psychology , computer science , communication , sociology , social science , telecommunications , linguistics , philosophy
One of the basic features of information is permanence. This feature states that the consumption of information by one consumer does not affect the availability of that information to other consumers. We present examples in two studies indicating that both laymen and experts of information exchange may be motivated to make choices that violate the permanence feature in accepting (Study 1) and offering (Study 2) information. When they possess, but have not yet consumed information, people may suffer from the appearance of wastefulness. This apparent wastefulness may provide a potential explanation for the observed violation of the permanence feature. Our findings indicate that, as the material age evolves into the information age, information-exchange behavior has not evolved significantly away from material-exchange behavior.