Started just over five years ago, in September of 2018, the ‘Hot Priest’ Instagram account has already shared over two thousand posts; but considering the vastness of the plains of the internet, that’s just a small fraction of all there is to see.
Yet even with such an indescribable amount of online content, we don’t lose interest, likely partially driven by a sense of curiosity—a trait shared by many a great mind, though, at the same time also being the one that supposedly killed the cat.
Research suggests that curiosity is an aversive cognitive state, which is caused by an information gap, which consequently promotes active seeking of that missing information. That’s why curiosity is considered one of the main developmental forces from a very early age.
For example, a child who doesn’t know how a certain toy works tends to try and analyze it to the extent that they are capable of at the given age; they shake it, toss it around, or try to taste it if need be, this way learning new information about it led by curiosity.
A survey of US parents with kids ages 5 and under found that the absolute majority of them believe that curious children excel beyond the less curious ones. It also revealed that watching the little ones explore something new makes moms and dads feel better about them themselves, as it reportedly makes them feel more confident in their parenting skills.
Children’s curiosity goes far beyond playing with toys, though, and helps them develop all sorts of skills. Take talking, for instance. A lecturer in language and communicative development at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, Katherine Twomey, pointed out that when they first start learning to express themselves vocally, they use systematic babbling as a form of exploration.
When they’re just a few months old, the babies start making all sorts of repetitive speech-like sounds until they babble something that resembles a thing the parents might utter. "They'll hit on something and think, 'That sounds like something my mum or dad would do’,” Twomey told Live Science.
The expert explained that such babbling demonstrates the utility of perceptual curiosity, which starts with a haphazard exploration of their vocal anatomy.
Harvard Business Review covered more benefits of curiosity; in addition to enhancing intelligence, it is believed to increase perseverance or grit, and encourage deeper engagement, better performance, and more meaningful goals.
The authors or the article also emphasized the importance of viewing curiosity as something that consists of several dimensions—we’ll get to them in a second—instead of regarding it as a single trait. That’s because based on the groundwork laid by previous research, they came up with a five-dimensional model of curiosity, allowing us to delve deeper into the minds of curious people.
The first of the five dimensions presented by the researchers is deprivation sensitivity, based on scientists Berlyne and Loewenstein’s previous work, which refers to the relief brought by filling a gap in knowledge. The authors pointed out that this type of sensitivity might not necessarily feel great, but it acts as a driving force for people who experience it to continuously solve problems.
The second dimension, known as joyous exploration, refers to the state of being captivated by the world’s fascinating features. Based on professor of psychology Edward Deci’s ideas from the 1970s, this dimension enables people to generate positive experiences.
The third dimension—social curiosity—is built on the fact that people are inherently social beings. Based on the research carried out by psychologist Britta Renner in the early 2000s, it suggests that curiosity is driven by people’s interest in how others think, feel, and act. While for some that means talking, listening, and observing, other individuals might turn to more secretive methods, such as eavesdropping or snooping around.
Stemming from the work of psychologist Paul Silvia, the fourth dimension is stress tolerance, which refers to the ability of exploring the information gaps and wonders of the world people are interested in, despite the anxiety they might cause.
Last but not least, the fifth dimension—thrill seeking—covers people’s willingness to take actual risks (whether physical, social, or financial) to achieve complex and typically intense experiences. Based on psychologist Marvin Zuckerman’s extensive research on sensation seeking, it suggests that thrill seeking individuals aim to amplify anxiety that accompanies novelty instead of reducing it.