Information non-seeking behaviour

Introduction. This paper analyses how the decision to not seek information has been studied and understood, with an examination of how the lens of information seeking research has framed the way non-seeking behaviour has been approached. Method. A conceptual analysis was completed for three main research streams: information overload, satisficing, and information avoidance. Results. Review of the literature revealed that information non-seeking behaviour has been conceptualized as pathology of information behaviour - as suboptimal alternatives to information seeking. Conclusions. A question that has gone largely unexplored in the literature is whether non-seeking behaviour could in fact be used beneficially. This paper seeks to examine whether the perspectives and priorities of the information seeking line of inquiry may have played a role in the ways that non-seeking behaviour has been investigated thus far. It is argued that exploring information non-seeking behaviour more holistically may lead us to discover that this behaviour could sometimes have beneficial uses, along with enabling a deeper understanding of information non-seeking in general.