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We survive by controlling our environment, and control is made possible by information. If we lack this, we feel insecure and come to feel that any knowledge is better than none. In an experiment, white rats repeatedly had to choose path A or path B. They always had a 50% chance of finding food in a box at the end of each path. But on path B, just before the box, there was a signal indicating whether or not food was present. After some days of training, all the rats developed a preference for path B, the side where they obtained information.

Humans show the same sort of preference for knowledge about an outcome which is uncertain but unavoidable. Our anxiety about the future can be so great that bad news is preferable to an absence of information. Regardless of the nature of the news, and in spite of the fact that we get no advantage from it, we would prefer to know and thus reduce our insecurity. There can hardly be a more inaccurate saying than gNo news is good news.h

And yet people do not always demand a state of complete certainty. Indeed much of our success as human beings is based on our ability to cope with environmental changes and our tendency to seek out new and challenging experiences. The popularity of pastimes such as mountaineering and motor racing is evidence of manfs need for some uncertainty and risk. Nevertheless, when these reach too high a level, we once more desire to have information about the future and a feeling of control over it.

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