Can it be +ev to call with air for info?

If you are playing with people you see often, can it ever be +ev to call small bets with air just to see what they have?

Lets say you have a busted draw, and on the river you check and then get min. bet into. If you call you can find out if this is a "I have middle pair please call me with your bottem pair" or "I missed my draw too, but maybe you will fold" or "I have the freaking nuts I know you won't call a lot so I'm going to do this weak bet so I can win one more BB"

Oh yeah, and I suppose you could advertise your image of a calling station donk if you flip over jack high and say "oh damn I thought I was good"

Would this just be a leak in my game? Because sometimes people will make crazy betting paterns and I just have no idea what they could have. Like I bet the flop, they raise me, I call. check-check turn. I check river and they min. bet into me. Is this I flopped the nuts and want to get paid a little more, or I thought you were c-betting the flop but you called, but maybe you will fold to my river bet.

if someone raised the flop and then checked the turn it's probably a draw.... to the calling with air i don't mind that for one BB.

The more pots the opponent plays, the more you should consider this if it is very cheap. Since the odds of getting in a similar situation later go up the more hands opponent is involved in, the info is 3x as valuable against a 30% VPIP player than a 10%. Probably not worth it at all against a very tight player.

I saw Daniel Negranu use this at some final table tourny, and at the time I was thinking chip spew, but then he went on to win the dam thing for 750k i believe. I just thought this was an interesting stratagy.

I know it isn't a good idea to model my play after the pros seen on TV especially if you are only seeing the hands where he check raises the guy all in with 5 high and pushes him off his AA, (well I suppose these sorts of moves become more necesary at the higher limits but not 25NL)

...

if you're talking about at showdown, do you understand the definition of expected value?