Frequency of updating information Sample Clauses

Frequency of updating information. An individual who is motivated to change activity needs to update its information about available activities. The less satisfied an individual is, the more frequent it updates information. One way of getting information is to ask others about their experience of activities. This is considered through social processing, where that individual gets not only information, but also the normative pressures of taking a specific activity. An individual can also explore an activity by itself through indi- vidual processing, namely, without enquiring others. Between social and individ- ual processing, an individual usually prefers one way to the other. We consider that an individual’s preference is determined by personal characteristics. Homo- phily describes the phenomenon that the more similar individuals are, the more likely they interact with each other. It suggests that an individual is more likely to ask those it frequently interacts with about their experience of activities. For ex- ample, it can be other individuals that an individual works with, lives nearby, those it most likely shares similar abilities and opinions with. For some new ac- tivities that nobody has experienced yet, an individual needs to analyze by itself, which is considered to demand more in terms of cognitive abilities and efforts. In fact, early adopters of a new activity are usually more interconnected in the soci- ety. They are the opinion leaders that others often check with, which is a benefit for spreading new activities.