Curiosity and pleasure

Abstract

Heuristic decision making received wide attention due to the work of Tversky and Kahneman (1981) and inspired multiple studies of irrationality of the human mind and a fundamental disregard for knowledge. But what is the source of all human knowledge, including heuristics? We discuss the hypothesis that acquisition of knowledge is a deeply rooted psychological need, a motivational mechanism for perception as well as higher cognition. We report experimental results showing that acquisition of knowledge is emotionally pleasing. The satisfaction of curiosity through acquiring knowledge brings pleasure. This confirms the hypothesis that curiosity or need for knowledge is a fundamental and ancient motivation on a par with other basic needs, such as sex or food. This paper connects curiosity, knowledge, cognition, emotions, including aesthetic emotions of the beautiful, mechanisms of drives, high cognitive functions, minimization of cognitive effort through heuristics, and knowledge maximization. We anticipate our finding to be an important aspect for several classical fields including cognitive dissonance, personality, self, learning, and new directions in cognitive science studying emotions related to acquiring knowledge, personality types in relation to types of knowledge, relating higher cognitive abilities to knowledge-related emotions, and new directions in aesthetics revealing the cognitive nature of the beautiful and music.

The knowledge instinct of autonomous adaptation

“…Recent experimental studies [71] confirmed existence of the knowledge instinct and aesthetic emotions related to knowledge. Using neuro-imaging studies such as [4,23,77,78] mathematical mechanisms in this paper should be related to specific mind's modules and circuits.…”

Positive and Negative Curiosity Experiences Among Tertiary Students

“…The finding that curiosity experiences were valenced in this way was unexpected, because previous definitions of curiosity have emphasized knowledge-seeking rather than knowledge-avoidance (Grossnickle, 2016). In one exception however, Perlovsky, Bonniot-Cabanac, and Cabanac (2010) asked adult men and women about their curiosity to learn information such as "Do you know the criteria used to rank restaurants?" and these authors used the term "negative curiosity" in cases when participants rejected the opportunity to learn the information.…”

A Model of Decision-Making Based on Critical Thinking

“…Merak, zihnin çeşitli işlevleriyle ilişkili karmaşık bir eğilimidir (Perlovsky, Bonniot-Cabanac ve Cabanac, 2010). Merak; yeniliğin ve sorunun tanınması, efor sarf etme ve öz düzenlenme ile ilişkili olumlu duyuşsal-motivasyonel sistem olarak kavramsallaştırılmıştır (Kashdan, Rose ve Fincham, 2004).…”