The human longing to know and understand is the driving force behind our development as individuals and even our success as a species. But curiosity can also be dangerous and cause you to stumble or even fall, so why does this urge force us so often throughout life?
In other words, why are humans so curious? And given the complexity of curiosity, do scientists have a definition for this innate drive?
Curiosity is so ingrained that it helps us learn as babies and survive as adults. As for the definition, there is no set in stone. Researchers in many disciplines are interested in curiosity, so it is not surprising that there is no widely accepted definition of the term. William James, one of the first modern psychologists, called it is “the drive toward better cognition.” Ivan Pavlov wrote that dogs (of course they were dogs) are curious about novel stimuli through the “what is it?” reflection that makes them focus spontaneously on something new that enters their environment.
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While defining a definition has been difficult, “the general consensus is that it is a means of gathering information,” Katherine Twomey, professor of language and communication development at the University of Manchester in the UK, told Live Science.
Psychologists also agree that curiosity is not about satisfying an immediate need, such as hunger or thirst; rather, it is intrinsically motivated.
Opening our way in the world
Curiosity encompasses such a large set of behaviors that there is probably not a single “curiosity gene” that makes humans wonder about the world and explore their environment. That said, curiosity has a genetic component. Genes and the environment interact in many complex ways to shape people and guide their behavior, including their curiosity.
The researchers made identify Changes to a specific type of gene that is more common in individual songbirds that are especially interested in exploring their environment, according to a 2007 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Science. In humans, mutations in this gene, known as DRD4, have been associated with a person’s propensity to search for news.
Regardless of their genetic makeup, babies have to learn an incredible amount of information in a short period of time, and curiosity is one of the tools humans have found to accomplish that gigantic task.
“If babies were not curious, they would never learn anything and development would not occur,” Twomey said.
Hundreds of studies show that babies prefer novelty. In a 1964 classic study, a psychologist showed that babies between 2 and 6 months of age became less and less interested in a complex visual pattern the more they looked at it. A 1983 study in the magazine. Developmental psychology of the slightly older children (8 months and 12 months) indicated that once the babies got used to family toys, they preferred the new ones, a scenario that caregivers probably know very well.
This preference for novelty has a name: perceptual curiosity. It’s what motivates non-human animals, human babies, and probably human adults to explore and search for new things before becoming less interested in them after continued exposure.
As these studies show, babies do this all the time. Babbling is an example.
“The exploration they do is systematic babblingTwomey said. When most babies are only a few months old, they begin to make repetitive, vocal sounds as they learn to speak. Babbling demonstrates the usefulness of perceptual curiosity. It begins as a completely random exploration of what your vocal anatomy can do.
Eventually, “they will hit something and think, ‘That sounds like something my mom or dad would do,'” he said. And then they do it again. And again.
But it’s not just about babies. Crows They are famous for using perceptual curiosity as a means of learning. For example, the urge to explore their surroundings will likely help crows learn to design the simple tools they use to fish larvae out of hard-to-reach crevices. Furthermore, experiments with robots programmed to be curious have shown that exploration is a powerful way to adapt to a new environment.
Make the world work for us
Another type of curiosity is distinctively human. Psychologists call it epistemic curiosity, and it’s about seeking knowledge and eliminating uncertainty. Epistemic curiosity emerges later in life and can require complex language, Twomey said.
For Augustín Fuentes, professor of anthropology at Princeton University, this form of curiosity has touched humans, and probably all members of the genus. Homo – apart from other animals and paved the way for us to populate almost every corner of the world, inventing technologies from hand axes to smartphones.
“Humans, in our distinctive lineage, went beyond simply adjusting nature to imagining and inventing new possibilities that stem from that kind of curiosity,” Fuentes told Live Science.
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But curiosity comes at a cost. Just because humans can imagine something doesn’t mean it will work, at least not at first. In some situations, the stakes are low and failure is a healthy part of growth. For example, many babies are perfectly competent crawlers, but they decide to try walking because there is more to see and do when they stand upright, according to Twomey. But this milestone comes at a small cost. A study of children 12 to 19 months who learned to walk documented that these children fell a lot. Seventeen times an hour, to be exact. But walking is faster than crawling, so this “motivates expert trackers to make the transition to walking,” the researchers wrote in the 2012 study, published in the journal. psychological science.
Sometimes, however, trying a new idea can lead to disaster.
“Curiosity probably led the vast majority of human populations to extinction,” Fuentes said.
For example, the Inuit from the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska, and the Sami from northern Europe have “created incredible ways to meet the challenges” of living in northern climates, but “what we forget is probably Tens of thousands of populations that tried and failed “in those challenging landscapes,” he said.
Ultimately, curiosity is about survival. Not all curious humans lived to pass their penchant for exploration to their descendants, but those who did help create a species that can’t help but think, “Huh, I wonder what would happen if …”
Originally published in Live Science.
