Anxiety selectively increases information-seeking in response to large changes

Seeking information when anxious may help reduce uncertainty and guide decision-making. If information is negative or confusing, however, this may increase anxiety further. Information gathered under anxiety can thus be beneficial and/or damaging. Here, we examine whether anxiety leads to a general increase in information-seeking, or rather to situation-dependent changes in the type of information sought. In two controlled laboratory studies, we show that both trait and induced anxiety selectively increased information-seeking. In particular, anxiety did not enhance the general tendency to seek information, nor did it alter the valence of the information gathered. Rather anxiety increased information-seeking specifically in response to large changes in the environment. This was true even when the cause of the anxiety was not directly related to the information sought. As anxious individuals have been shown to have problems learning in changing environments, greater information-seeking in such environments may be an adaptive compensatory mechanism.