Uninformativ

Uninformativ is an adjective used primarily in German-language contexts to describe content that provides little or no new information in a given context. The term is also encountered in English-language discussions, often in the form of a loanword or in translations related to noninformative content. The central idea is that the information content of the material is low relative to expectations, questions, or hypotheses being considered.

In information theory and statistics, uninformativ describes priors, data, or observations that have minimal impact on updating beliefs. In Bayesian analysis, a prior intended to be uninformativ is designed to exert little influence on the posterior distribution; however, in practice, all priors carry some information, and their influence depends on the model and the available data.

In linguistics and communication studies, uninformativ content refers to language or signals that carry low entropy or high redundancy, offering limited discrimination among possible interpretations. Such content may be easy to process but provides few actionable insights for decision making or learning.

The term is often contrasted with informative or highly informative content, which significantly reduces uncertainty or distinguishes among competing hypotheses. Some scholars prefer more precise terms such as noninformative prior, low information content, or high redundancy, depending on the disciplinary context. Uninformativ remains a descriptor used in discussions of data quality, communication efficiency, and inference sensitivity.

See also: noninformative prior, information content, entropy, mutual information, redundancy, signal-to-noise ratio.