RECLAIMING CURIOSITY
We start out curious as children, but somewhere along the way, bills and back pain start to take over. Can reclaiming our sense of discovery and wonder about the world lead to happiness?
It’s easy to let our curiosity wane as we grow older, but can reclaiming our sense of discovery actually lead to happiness?
When Alice enters Wonderland, she’s chasing the White Rabbit simply because he’s an odd fellow in a waistcoat and carrying a watch – not exactly your standard bunny behaviour. Following her tumble down the rabbit hole, she navigates a peculiar land filled with a Mad Hatter, an insane queen and a hookah-smoking caterpillar. The reason she discovers this strange and dangerous place? She lets her curiosity get the better of her.
The impulse to wander and wonder can take us to some dark places, physically and mentally. We talk about curiosity killing the cat and Pandora’s box to discourage others from prying or wanting to discover secrets better off left buried. But is curiosity all bad? As in Alice’s adventures, curiosity can take you off the beaten path to one of magic and mystery. Curiosity can be a sinister impulse, but it can also lead to happy discoveries and add spicy variety to an otherwise unchanging existence.
One of the awkward aspects of curiosity is its resistance to consistent definition. Over the years, it has been associated with various different behaviours, including play, exploration, neophilia (the love of novelty), and reinforcement learning ( balancing exploration with decisionmaking based on prior knowledge, in pursuit of a goal). Professor Roy Baumeister, from the University of Queensland’s School of Psychology, says that at its core, curiosity taps into our fundamental need to learn and grow.
“Curiosity is the desire for information,” explains Baumeister. “Information is central to human life. We deal in information constantly. There are many specifically human aspects to this, such as questioning information and discussing it with others, but curiosity seems to be shared with many other animals.”
In fact, animals are motivated to explore and forage by curiosity. There are competing theories about whether the feeling is driven by wanting to remove the existential dread of not knowing the answer to certain questions, or the pursuit of the pleasure of gaining new knowledge. Chances are it’s a bit of both.
Psychologist Harry Harlow characterised curiosity as a basic drive in organisms that leads them to solve puzzles even when there is no tangible incentive. Experiments have shown monkeys are happy to do this in the absence of food or some other reward. Rats will also explore a maze when they’re not being corralled into completing a set task, purely for the thrill of adventure.
Animals, including humans, are driven to make choices enabling them to resolve uncertainty and the unknown. If asked to decide between the money or ‘What’s behind door Number 1?’ on a game show, many find the lure of the gamble over the guaranteed cash prize hard to resist.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is a name for people who completely lack any urge towards curiosity – fysigunkuses. Baumeister suspects that very few people would truly fit into this category, and he argues that fysigunkuses would be at a disadvantage from refusing to seek out information, unless they belong to a social group and rely on the group’s collective learning and experience.
Wanting to shield yourself from information is understandable. In a world of too much information bombarding us from billboards and blaring radios and tiny screens we carry around in our pockets, one would think humans would want to filter out the facts entering our brain. Those of us who aren’t fysigunkuses never stop wondering what other people are doing, though, so we
“People are curious about other people probably more than anything else.”
PROFESSOR ROY BAUMEISTER
can measure ourselves against them. “People are curious about other people probably more than anything else – but not everyone welcomes other people’s curiosity all the time,” says Baumeister.
Of course, if you find yourself peering through your neighbour’s doggy door or placing a glass to the wall so that you can ‘accidentally’ overhear a conversation, you might be taking curiosity too far.
At that stage, you’ve veered into nosy neighbour territory and need to take a step back.
The internet is always at our fingertips, and it’s all too easy to do a Google search and bring up sordid details about ex-lovers, work rivals and former classmates. Heck, they often make it easy by advertising their every move on Facebook.
“Being curious can lead to us being nosy,” states Dr Lauren Rosewarne, senior social scientist at the University of Melbourne.
“This could manifest in gossip or spending too much time cyberstalking people we want to know more about. Being perpetually curious can also leave us frequently distracted and prone to leaving tasks unfinished in pursuit of quests for ever more information.”
Seeking out new experiences can also lead to thrill- seeking behaviour when taken to the extreme. We might see other people’s highlights reels on Instagram or Facebook and speculate about what a particular experience is like, eager to tick it off our own bucket list and take a photo as proof.
Another downside of curiosity is that you can, of course, have some utterly miserable experiences in the name of trying new things or eliminating the unknown.
Rubbernecking, watching gory horror movies or exploring a dangerous landscape are prime examples. However, getting lost in an unfamiliar neighbourhood, locking yourself out of the car in the pouring rain or having an awkward conversation with a stranger might make for a lively anecdote, once your pulse has returned to normal.
Concepts like FOMO (the fear of missing out) also prey on our curiosity. Our imagination runs wild with ‘what ifs’, and we can’t help being scared that what we’re missing is better than what we have now. It fuels heavy emotions such as envy and sadness, and pushes us to do things that aren’t always in our best interests.
Another insidious way to exploit human curiosity is clickbait. We’ve all seen online headlines such as ‘Woman Hugs a Bear. You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!’ and ‘10 Things No One Knew About Elvis. Number 7 Will Blow Your Mind’. Even though part of our brains is screaming at us to ignore them because we’re being tricked into reading something that’s not what was promised, we can’t help but be intrigued at the same time. The desire to discover that unknown is strong.
What about the role of curiosity in schooling? In education circles, debate has raged between the chalk-and-talk, rote-learning style and a more freeform, curiosity- driven approach such as that of Finland (see ‘Reading, Writing and Resilience’, page 18).
As for adults, they need not lose that childlike impulse for questioning the world around them and finding frivolity and intrigue around every corner. They can use their spare time to not only let their curiosity broaden their horizons, but to focus intensely on a subject that sparks interest.
“Children appear more curious because they are always asking questions – ultimately because everything is completely new to them,” Rosewarne says. “Some older people might be less curious – and this might be attributable to things like depression or isolation, but many older people find that with more time on their hands in retirement, they can do deep dives into topics that they didn’t have time for while working or raising families.”
Limited finances, health concerns, time constraints and other worries can all make it trickier to draw out your free spirit, but it’s worth the effort. Rosewarne suggests branching off the well-worn path to explore new avenues for adventure and learning and maintaining a healthy mind.
“Curiosity keeps the brain active,” she says. “Seeking out answers and learning something new can give people not only a reason to get up in the morning, but it can create an enormous range of new skills and potentially a whole new social network. Hone a new set of skills – be it a craft or a language or a cuisine. We can become proficient, if not an expert in different things across the life course.”
You don’t have to perfect these skills, of course; the important thing is to take an active interest in your surroundings, observing and getting involved as much as you can, rather than closing yourself off to new possibilities. Rosewarne advocates our society embracing and funding cultural institutions and informal educational avenues to encourage everyone into lifelong learning. Individuals can not only further their own understanding of the world, but support the continued need for these spaces by actively participating.
“Read more – that’s everything from newspapers to novels to memoirs to magazines,” she says.
“Travel. This doesn’t just involve expensive trips interstate or overseas, but to places you’ve never explored, even those very close to home. Visit galleries and museums and cultural venues that you might never have been to before and learn about something new.”
Trying to seek out surprises in small ways every day leads to a more fulfilling life, and a deeper connection with those around you. You’ll have a more well-rounded view of the planet and more insight into other cultures and perspectives.
“People who are curious tend to be happier,” says Rosewarne.
“It can make us better partners and enables us to have deeper relationships by being more empathetic based on us wanting to truly know another person.” It seems Alice had the right idea, after all.