People are curious creatures and we like to know things even though they don’t benefit us directly. Some of us even go to university to study things that don’t have true practicality, but we just desire knowledge in that particular field despite knowing that it will be difficult to find a job or apply that knowledge practically.
We get satisfaction from learning such facts like how two unrelated people lived at the same time in history or that all of the Solar system planets would fit in between the Moon and the Earth, even though it is useless information that you can’t use for your own survival.
Information seeking is actually not just a human trait. Every animal explores its surroundings and wants to know things about their environment and other living creatures that are near. But curiosity is the yearning to know the answer and that is what sets humans apart.
Obviously, it started with humans wanting to know their surroundings to survive and it was what helped us develop and achieve the advancements that actually are practical and useful for our lives. The Encyclopedia Britannica claims that “Over thousands of years, only the most curious people reproduced, leading to the characteristic curiosity of modern-day humans.”
Now curiosity doesn’t have that practical aspect, but we seek it because our brain rewards us for getting to know more. The Encyclopedia Britannica explains, “Researchers have determined that dopamine, the brain’s reward chemical, is intricately linked to the brain’s curiosity state. When you explore and satisfy your curiosity, your brain floods your body with dopamine, which makes you feel happier. This reward mechanism increases the likelihood that you’ll try and satisfy your curiosity again in the future.”
There are actually two types of curiosity: epistemic and empathic. Epistemic curiosity is the one that makes you research something you want to know about more and empathic is the one that drives you to get to know what other people think and feel. And the more you encourage both types of curiosity, the easier it is for you to learn even more.
We couldn’t have come this far as a species without having curiosity and without trying to learn things that might seem useless or illogical. The best part is that our brain itself makes us feel happy about knowing things and learning.
So did your brain ward you for reading through this list? Which fact surprised you the most? Do you know of any other facts that sound very bizarre but are actually true? Share them in the comments and upvote the facts that made your brain release the most dopamine!
