40 People Asked Embarrassingly Stupid Questions And Probably Regretted It

As humans, we’re curious by nature. Think about children for a moment—they seem to have an endless supply of questions. Why is the sky blue? Where does the moon go during the day? Why do I have to go to bed? And honestly, that curiosity helps us make sense of the world around us. Asking questions is how we learn, discover new ideas, challenge old assumptions, and sometimes stumble upon answers we never even knew we were looking for. Of course, not every question that pops into our heads is going to be brilliant, but curiosity itself is usually where learning begins.

Curiosity can also help us become more open-minded. In The Art of Insubordination, psychologist Todd Kashdan explores the value of questioning assumptions and remaining open to new ideas. Research has suggested that curiosity can make people more willing to consider other perspectives, even when those opinions differ from their own.

This can be especially useful for having productive disagreements and avoiding habits such as confirmation bias. Kashdan's research has also explored how curiosity can benefit people in the workplace. One study involving more than 800 participants from the United States and Germany examined how curiosity relates to everyday experiences, including statements such as “I get excited thinking about experimenting with different ideas” and “I do not shy away from the unknown or unfamiliar even if it seems scary.” Being curious doesn't mean having all the answers; it can simply mean being willing to explore, experiment, and ask, “What if?”

Curiosity may even help us remember things better. A fascinating 2014 study by researchers at the University of California explored what happens in the brain when we're genuinely interested in learning an answer. Participants were first asked to rate how curious they were about various trivia questions, including things like which U.S. president was in office when Uncle Sam first got his beard and what the word “dinosaur” actually means.

The participants then answered the questions while undergoing fMRI scans and were later tested on how well they remembered the information. The results were striking: when people were highly curious about a fact, they were around 30% more likely to remember it later. It seems that when our brains really want to know something, they may be better prepared to hold on to the answer.

Researchers believe that curiosity may give the brain a kind of head start, preparing it to absorb new information and helping those memories become more stable. Interestingly, the benefits may extend beyond the thing you were originally curious about. In the study, participants were also shown random faces alongside the answers to trivia questions, and they were more likely to remember those faces later when they had been especially curious about the answer. In other words, a burst of curiosity may help the brain become more receptive to learning in general. That could be particularly useful when studying something complicated: we may not find every single detail fascinating, but becoming genuinely curious about even part of a topic could help more of the surrounding information stick.

Curiosity is also a powerful motivator for learning. In an article titled “The Importance of Developing Curiosity,” Lachlan Brown highlights why encouraging curiosity in children can be so valuable. As he puts it, “Curiosity is the engine of intellectual achievement,” pointing to research suggesting that people who are more curious about a topic may be more motivated to learn about it and engage with new information. This is why it's worth encouraging children (and ourselves) to ask questions, explore unfamiliar ideas, and occasionally admit that we simply don't know something. We don't have to understand everything immediately. Sometimes learning starts with nothing more complicated than wondering, “Why is that?”

Curiosity can influence far more than what we learn in school. It can encourage creativity, help us approach problems from different angles, and make us more willing to explore unfamiliar situations. It may also play an important role in decision-making and healthy development, especially when children have the freedom to safely explore their surroundings and ask questions without feeling embarrassed. Of course, curiosity needs a little common sense. Not every mystery needs investigating, and not every thought needs to become an experiment. But a healthy sense of curiosity can help keep us engaged with the world instead of simply accepting everything at face value.