The Gilding-the-Lily Effect: Exploratory Behavior Energized by Curiosity

The widespread metaphor “to gild the lily” suggests that people usually engage in superfluous behaviors. Understanding the cognitive mechanism underlying superfluous behaviors helps individuals to reduce possible waste and even disasters incurred by unnecessary actions. Here, we assumed that curiosity for new information partly pushes people to make needless efforts. This hypothesis was tested through three experiments. In three experiments, we found that when participants knew that expending more efforts than task requirements brought no better results, they still exerted various exploratory activities to fulfill curiosity. These results imply that the impulsion to satisfy the desire for information could partly drive individuals to indulge in unnecessary activities over mission demands. Present research improves the comprehension of irrational superfluous behavior and provides directions to reduce loss and waste caused by gilding the lily.