If it’s important, then I’m curious: Increasing perceived usefulness stimulates curiosity

Abstract

Curiosity is considered essential for learning and sustained engagement, yet stimulating curiosity in educational contexts remains a challenge. Can people's curiosity about a topic be stimulated by evidence that the topic has potential value? In two experiments we show that increasing perceptions of value regarding a scientific topic also increases curiosity and subsequent information search. Our results also show that simply presenting interesting facts is not enough to influence curiosity, and that people are more likely to be curious about a topic if they perceive it to be directly valuable to them. Given the link between curiosity and learning, these results have important implications for science communication and education more broadly.

On the interplay of curiosity, confidence, and importance in knowing information

“…In addition, these two studies investigated confidence separately from importance or utility (i.e., both as main effects) but did not investigate curiosity as a function of confidence and importance (i.e., both main effects plus the interaction between these two factors). Nevertheless, the results from Liquin and Lombrozo (2020), as well as Dubey et al (2019), provided further evidence showing that the perceived importance of information influences participants' curiosity.…”

“…They also found that the effect of utility on curiosity was larger than the effect of confidence on curiosity. On a similar account, Dubey et al (2019) found that increasing the awareness of importance concerning a scientific topic also increased curiosity and that increased curiosity about a topic was followed by a higher willingness to learn about this information. Importantly, Liquin and Lombrozo (2020) as well as Dubey et al (2019) used a different paradigm as Kang et al (2009).…”

“…On a similar account, Dubey et al (2019) found that increasing the awareness of importance concerning a scientific topic also increased curiosity and that increased curiosity about a topic was followed by a higher willingness to learn about this information. Importantly, Liquin and Lombrozo (2020) as well as Dubey et al (2019) used a different paradigm as Kang et al (2009). In addition, these two studies investigated confidence separately from importance or utility (i.e., both as main effects) but did not investigate curiosity as a function of confidence and importance (i.e., both main effects plus the interaction between these two factors).…”

“…This indicates that curiosity may be best elicited for relatively unimportant information when participants already know a bit of this information. So far, few other studies investigated the role of selfindicated importance of information on persons' curiosity (Dubey et al, 2019;Golman & Loewenstein, 2018;Liquin & Lombrozo, 2020). For instance, Liquin and Lombrozo (2020) found that participants were more likely to seek information if the utility of this information was rated as high.…”

Adults Show Positive Moral Evaluations of Curiosity about Religion

“…Religious and scientific knowledge are similar in many respects: Both involve culturally-transmitted worldviews containing socially-valued beliefs, causal models, values, and practices that determine what is real and true (Harris & Corriveau, 2014;Johnson et al, 2011). People are most curious when they perceive novel information as valuable (Dubey et al, 2019;, and given that religious individuals often express strong commitments to both scientific and religious traditions (e.g., Legare et al, 2012), curiosity may play an important role in learning about both topics. One key mechanism driving these effects could be the perception that curiosity signals willingness to exert effort to achieve socially desirable goals.…”