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2022: Creating a Lexicon of Future
Field Guide to Flourishing: C is for Curiosity
Curiosity is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans and other animals. Curiosity is heavily associated with all aspects of human development, in which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill. ~ Wikipedia, Curiosity
One of the most prominent theories of curiosity, the information-gap model, suggests that curiosity arises when a person notices a gap in her knowledge. The gap induces a feeling of deficiency, which in turn motivates her to fill the gap. Like hunger or thirst, curiosity can thus be aversive; an emotional prod to obtain information. Perhaps the bigger or more consequential the gap, the more aversive the feeling.
Other accounts of curiosity build in a distinction between its more negative and positive faces. On one view, curiosity comes in two flavors: deprivation — a strong but unsatisfied need to know — and interest — information-seeking that’s motivated by anticipated pleasure. These two flavors reflect the changing balance of “wanting” (what we need) versus “liking” (what we enjoy). ~ Is Curiosity a Positive or Negative Feeling?
Can you strengthen the curiosity muscle? (Source: Curiosity)
- Try something outside your comfort zone
- Change your perspective by searching for the positive in every situation
- Be willing to ask that “dumb” question
- Ban the word “boring” from your vocabulary
