Why do we seek information about the future? On the origins of subjective value without instrumental value

Why do we want to know the future? Humans and many animals pay for information to predict uncertain rewards, even when they cannot control them. The reason for this conserved yet seemingly paradoxical preference – “subjective value without instrumental value” – remains unknown. Here we develop a normative framework to explain the origins of such preferences, their persistence across species, and their contributions to survival. We formalize and evaluate theories that explain subjective value as originating from an adaptive estimate of advantage for solving core computational problems in naturalistic environments. We show that human and animal subjective values are remarkably well suited to solve these problems, accomplishing the goals of multiple theories simultaneously. We derive novel forms of information to enable existing theories to be dissociated, and show that pooling their subjective values improves performance across diverse environments. Thus, organisms may value information because it pays diverse dividends in nature.