You Can Train Yourself to Be More Curious
It's good to be a curious person. Curiosity is associated with personal growth, intellectual engagement, psychological well-being, stronger relationships, professional success, and healthy ageing. More broadly, curiosity plays a crucial role in the discoveries and innovations that improve our lives.
We often think of curiosity as one of those personality traits you either have or you don't. Some people are naturally inquisitive, always asking questions and exploring new ideas. Others appear more content with familiar routines and established knowledge. And when we do imagine changes in curiosity, we tend to think of it as decreasing with age. We see this in how children are always asking questions, finding wonder and mystery everywhere they look. But we expect this to diminish with age as our priorities shift from learning new things to applying the knowledge we've built up. But what if curiosity is a characteristic we can actually grow throughout our lives?
New research adds to growing evidence challenging the assumptions that curiosity is either fixed by nature or destined to decline. Specifically, a recently published study from psychologists Madeleine Gross and Jonathan Schooler at UC Santa Barbara demonstrates that we can boost our curiosity levels through deliberate practice. The researchers developed a smartphone intervention where participants first created six personalized curiosity goals with specific triggers, like "When I am on my lunch break, then I will listen to a new podcast." Every other day, they chose one of these goals to complete. On alternating days, they worked through researcher-designed challenges at different difficulty levels that encouraged them to break out of routine and explore their environment in new ways.
After three weeks, participants showed measurable increases in curiosity, particularly the kind that drives us to explore and engage with our surroundings. Participants also reported feeling more creative and finding more meaning in life, both outcomes linked to curiosity.
This study adds to growing evidence that personality is more changeable than we typically think. Yes, we have relatively stable traits that make us unique individuals with distinct strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. Someone who's naturally introverted will likely always be more reserved than their extroverted sibling, and these differences often emerge early and remain fairly consistent throughout life. But we are also an agentic species, capable of actively shaping who we become.
Researchers are finding that a bottom-up approach is most effective for personality change. This means focusing on concrete behaviors rather than abstract goals. Personality traits aren't mysterious internal forces completely beyond our control. They're patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that become more automatic with repetition. Want to become more curious? Act more curious on a regular basis, and you become more curious over time.
This smartphone-based approach is particularly promising because it addresses a big challenge in changing our dispositions and existing habits. Most of us have good intentions about personal growth, but we struggle to maintain new behaviors over time. Smartphones are with us throughout the day, making them very useful tools for the kinds of consistent behavioral prompts that help us achieve lasting change.
Our discourse around digital devices tends to focus heavily on the negatives. But research like this reminds us that smartphones can be used to improve our lives. The same device that might distract us can also help us become more curious, creative, and engaged with the world around us. Indeed, as I discussed in a previous newsletter, research from our team at the Human Flourishing Lab finds that though Americans certainly have some concerns about digital technology, most adults actually feel good about their digital engagement and see it as a positive force in their lives. It really comes down to how we choose to use these tools.
You don't need a specialized app to start building your own curiosity practice. Research offers several practical approaches for fostering curiosity in yourself and others. One effective strategy involves connecting new information to personal relevance. Studies show that people become significantly more curious about scientific topics when they understand how those topics matter to their lives.
Another powerful technique is making question-asking a regular habit. This is especially valuable in educational contexts where students typically focus on finding answers rather than generating questions. Research demonstrates that incorporating question brainstorming sessions in classrooms boosts adolescent curiosity. Regularly formulating questions appears to strengthen our underlying disposition toward exploration and discovery
Research also points to other effective approaches for cultivating curiosity. Studies show that creating a sense of mystery can trigger our natural drive to seek answers, while gameplay elements and interactive challenges can enhance engagement and exploration. These findings suggest multiple pathways for becoming more curious, whether through structured apps or simple daily practices.
The broader implications extend beyond individual development. Curiosity is fundamentally connected to what I call a progress mindset. When we approach the world with genuine curiosity, we become more open to new information and diverse viewpoints, willing to question assumptions, and motivated to explore possibilities we hadn't previously considered. This is essential for innovation, as it helps us see problems from new angles and develop creative solutions.
In our current moment, when many feel pessimistic about the future, cultivating curiosity becomes vital for advancing a more hopeful vision. It means remaining open to the possibility that solutions exist for problems that seem intractable. It means maintaining faith that learning and discovery can make things better.
Have a great weekend!
Clay