What does Curiosity mean to you?

In our inaugural post here on K.R. Curiosities, we want to ask everyone a "simple" thought-provoking question. What does curiosity mean to you? What value can it bring to your lives? How can you cultivate it and use it as a tool to benefit you?

Here are some collections of thoughts from around the web to help spur some thinking:

"There are nearly endless opportunities to improve each day and finding them largely boils down to being curious. People who are better in the end are usually curious in the beginning."

- James Clear 3,2,1

“Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

― Walt Disney Company

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day."

—"Old Man's Advice to Youth: 'Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.'" LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. 64”

― Albert Einstein

Types of People and Curiosity

Much research has been done over the years regarding curiosity from a social and psychological standpoint. Some of the more recent work has been done by Dr. Todd Kashdan of George Mason University and aims to help quantify different types of curiosity and how different personality types engage with it. Specifically, Dr. Kashdan's work identifies five major areas that influence a person's curiosity:

1. Joyous exploration: I view challenging situations as an opportunity to grow and learn. I am always looking for experiences that challenge how I think about myself and the world. I seek out situations where it is likely that I will have to think in depth about something. I enjoy learning about subjects that are unfamiliar to me. I find it fascinating to learn new information.

2. Deprivation sensitivity: I like to try to solve problems that puzzle me. Thinking about solutions to difficult conceptual problems can keep me awake at night. I can spend hours on a single problem because I just can’t rest without knowing the answer. I feel frustrated if I can’t figure out the solution to a problem, so I work even harder to solve it. I work relentlessly at problems that I feel must be solved.

3. Stress tolerance: The smallest doubt can stop me from seeking out new experiences. I cannot handle the stress that comes from entering uncertain situations. I find it hard to explore new places when I lack confidence in my abilities. I cannot function well if I am unsure whether a new experience is safe. It is difficult to concentrate when there is a possibility that I will be taken by surprise.

4. Social curiosity: I like to learn about the habits of others. I like finding out why people behave the way they do. When other people are having a conversation, I like to find out what it’s about. When around other people, I like listening to their conversations. When people quarrel, I like to know what’s going on.

5. Thrill-seeking: The anxiety of doing something new makes me feel excited and alive. Risk-taking is exciting to me. I would like to explore a strange city or section of town, even if it means getting lost. When I have free time, I want to do things that are a little scary. Creating an adventure as I go is much more appealing than a planned adventure.

Additionally, Dr. Kashdan's work categorizes people into four main groups based on how predominant each facet of curiosity is for them.

1. The Fascinated – scored high on all dimensions of curiosity, particularly joyous exploration. They also showed various traits in their lives that reflected their high levels of curiosity, they claimed to read more and had a more extensive range of interests and hobbies than any other group.

2. Problem Solvers – scored high on deprivation sensitivity, and were midrange for other dimensions. In their personal lives, they had less diversity of interests than people in the Fascinated group and were heavily invested in a few areas of interest.

3. Empathizers – scored high on social curiosity, midrange on other dimensions and much lower on stress tolerance and thrill-seeking. They tend to frequent social media more than other groups and try to give the impression that their lives are under control. This group was 60% female, a much higher percentage than displayed in any other group.

4. Avoiders – scored low on all dimensions, particularly stress tolerance. They also had significant lifestyle differences from other groups, they were less educated, read less, had a high unemployment rate, and claimed to suffer from higher levels of stress than any other group.

The study results of each individual group and responsiveness to particular areas of curiosity are shown below:

All of that to say that curiosity can be complicated and can be something distinctly different based on who you are as an individual and your preferences for various types of situations. Where do you fit in? How does this information impact how you think about curiosity?

Thoughts on a Potential Downside to Curiosity?

Wait, but didn't "curiosity kill the cat"? This idiom-proverb has existed for hundreds of years and aims to caution the curious that potential disaster and ruin can face those who pursue their whimsical curiosities. Suspected to have originated in the early 1600's and prevailing through to the early 1900's, this idiom does shed some light into risk vs. reward behavior and the cognitive biases that influence this behavior. In this example, curiosity would be the reward (or satisfied curiosity) and the risk would be...well...death. This risk vs. reward behavior is center to our psychology as human beings. In general, humans faced with a risk-reward type scenario will typically remember and overestimate potential negative impacts of a decision. This phenomenon is a well known cognitive bias known as the negativity bias.

"The human brain demonstrates a partiality for the processing of negative information. In comparison with their positive counterparts, negative stimuli receive a larger allocation of attention and a swifter response once recognized by the brain."[1][2]

1. Smith, N., & Larsen, J., & Chartrand, T. (2003). "May I have your attention, please: Electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli". Neuropsychologia. 41 (2): 171–183. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.322.5967. doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00147-1.

2. ^ Ito, T. A., Larsen, J. T., Smith, N. K., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1988). "Negative information weighs more heavily on the brain: The negativity bias in evaluative categorizations". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 75 (4): 887–900. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.316.2348. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.4.887. PMID 9825526.

This negativity bias helps explain how an idiom such as "curiosity killed the cat" can become a major part of human culture and encompass an overly represented portion of our thinking. It captures the bias perfectly. If you are curious and take the risk, it can be bad for you. Not only that, but the fact that it could be bad will give it more credence when it comes time to make a decision, especially if a negative outcome has been experienced in the past. So what is the moral of the story? Don't be the cat. Don't take the risks and be happy to be alive and not have to live with your terrible decisions and consequences. It's a simple message and its well-received, but is it justified?

The proverb itself underwent a bit of a transformation in the early 1900's becoming a bit more complete. On 10 August 1905, The Galveston Daily News newspaper (page 6) printed the following quotation:

"Curiosity killed a cat; but it came back."

And again in 1912 with:

"Curiosity killed the cat,

But satisfaction brought it back."

This adaptation seemingly brings back the "reward" part of the risk vs. reward equation. Sure, your negativity bias tells you that risk exists and it could kill you, BUT if the reward is great enough to you, it may be worth it. As many know, many things worth having in life are not free and some level of risk is required to achieve anything great. Perhaps a better moral to the story is if you choose to be the cat, use your nine lives wisely.

But the cat came back the very next day,

The cat came back, we thought he was a goner

But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away.

What do you think?

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