5 ms·

> Is curiosity a desire to gain knowledge? Is it a desire to see if you are right or wrong? Is it a drive to test existing hypotheses? Is it a motivation sparke

> Is curiosity a desire to gain knowledge? Is it a desire to see if you are right or wrong? Is it a drive to test existing hypotheses? Is it a motivation sparked by novelty or uncertainty? It would be odd to describe it as an emotional motivation and not a behaviour. I'd say the behaviour is a pursuit of not immediately necessary information. The subject is drawn to unravel unknowns in their environment. It might be broadly focussed to flip every stone or narrow to a subject e.g. people or a topic. The various motivations for this behaviour probably encompasses all human motivations. It might be delight/entertainment/play of discovery, collector/completionist type obsession, fear/anxiety/pessimism/paranoia of unknowns, ego preservation to be the "one who knows", procrastination in the face of aversive tasks...

quietbritishjim 5y ago
> It would be odd to describe it as an emotional motivation and not a behaviour. On the contrary, I can certainly imagine (from experience :-) ) being curious about something but too lazy to actually find out. Just like someone can be hungry but too lazy to go out and get food, but they're still hungry (I'm not sure whether such a person could be described as "greedy" though). I think that all confirms the parent comment's point that some forms of curiosity don't lead to better outcomes.
- duncanawoods 5y ago
  Or have you mislabelled your internal experience? No observer could describe you as curious. Identifying unknowns is universal but if it doesn't motivate you into action, surely that is the definition of incurious? Laziness is no doubt one of the reasons behind incuriosity just as poor impulse control one of the attributes of the most curious. Would it be more accurate to say this experience was the "desire to be curious"? Anyway, it's all a word game which is why I would expect a researcher to focus on observable phenomena and not define it in terms of qualia.
  - quietbritishjim 5y ago
    Surely we've all observed people that just don't care about something we would find interesting - that is real incuriosity. It's the same with my hunger analogy: someone could be hungry but not motivated enough to go and get food (but presumably not that hungry), while another person is genuinely not hungry at all, but the observable effect is the same. The reality is that emotions are subjective and we have no way to compare our experiences directly with others, but it's ridiculous to assert that they don't exist. Agreed that this is all word games. Hopefully any good research would start by defining their terminology.
    - duncanawoods 5y ago
      We can play the word game of hunger too. Any claim of hunger that is not followed by eating when given the opportunity is suspect. When a child complains of being hungry and pointing at the donuts, we offer them an apple and they storm off in a huff, we say "ha, you weren't really hungry". We reject the claim of hunger and instead suspect a desire for sugary stimulation. Hunger is not a pure mental state but a case where physical sensations are labelled as hunger and we should often doubt that labelling. If you are on a diet there are common maxims like "are you hungry or just bored?" with advice to seek distraction because a momentary physical sensation will fade. We confuse many physical sensations for what we might want to strictly define as hunger especially when eating makes those sensations cease e.g. dyspepsia, low-mood, boredom etc. Initial assumptions of hunger can be relabelled just like the "I am excited not anxious" trick before public speaking. The physical sensations driving the type of hunger from habitual anticipation of food are caused by observable changes in the body as it prepares itself (hormonal changes / stomach acid etc.). That gives some empirical baseline beyond qualia. So for this person on the sofa, too lazy to go eat, we should be suspicious of their labelling but can look at what their body is doing. It's also notable that if you do any long term fasting (weeks) you find people talk about hitting "real hunger" and it's startling different experience from everyday hunger. I expect there are related physical changes but it's quite a different mental sensation - it's almost like fear - the feeling of an alarm cord being pulled and an "oh shit, I have to eat now".
      - 5y ago
mannykannot 5y ago
I do not think anyone is suggesting it is not a behavior, but what seems curious about it is the question of motivation, given that it quite often is a voluntary behavior with little or no prospect of having tangible benefits outside of that person's mental state.

quietbritishjim 5y ago

> It would be odd to describe it as an emotional motivation and not a behaviour. On the contrary, I can certainly imagine (from experience :-) ) being curious about something but too lazy to actually find out. Just like someone can be hungry but too lazy to go out and get food, but they're still hungry (I'm not sure whether such a person could be described as "greedy" though). I think that all confirms the parent comment's point that some forms of curiosity don't lead to better outcomes.

duncanawoods 5y ago
Or have you mislabelled your internal experience? No observer could describe you as curious. Identifying unknowns is universal but if it doesn't motivate you into action, surely that is the definition of incurious? Laziness is no doubt one of the reasons behind incuriosity just as poor impulse control one of the attributes of the most curious. Would it be more accurate to say this experience was the "desire to be curious"? Anyway, it's all a word game which is why I would expect a researcher to focus on observable phenomena and not define it in terms of qualia.
- quietbritishjim 5y ago
  Surely we've all observed people that just don't care about something we would find interesting - that is real incuriosity. It's the same with my hunger analogy: someone could be hungry but not motivated enough to go and get food (but presumably not that hungry), while another person is genuinely not hungry at all, but the observable effect is the same. The reality is that emotions are subjective and we have no way to compare our experiences directly with others, but it's ridiculous to assert that they don't exist. Agreed that this is all word games. Hopefully any good research would start by defining their terminology.
  - duncanawoods 5y ago
    We can play the word game of hunger too. Any claim of hunger that is not followed by eating when given the opportunity is suspect. When a child complains of being hungry and pointing at the donuts, we offer them an apple and they storm off in a huff, we say "ha, you weren't really hungry". We reject the claim of hunger and instead suspect a desire for sugary stimulation. Hunger is not a pure mental state but a case where physical sensations are labelled as hunger and we should often doubt that labelling. If you are on a diet there are common maxims like "are you hungry or just bored?" with advice to seek distraction because a momentary physical sensation will fade. We confuse many physical sensations for what we might want to strictly define as hunger especially when eating makes those sensations cease e.g. dyspepsia, low-mood, boredom etc. Initial assumptions of hunger can be relabelled just like the "I am excited not anxious" trick before public speaking. The physical sensations driving the type of hunger from habitual anticipation of food are caused by observable changes in the body as it prepares itself (hormonal changes / stomach acid etc.). That gives some empirical baseline beyond qualia. So for this person on the sofa, too lazy to go eat, we should be suspicious of their labelling but can look at what their body is doing. It's also notable that if you do any long term fasting (weeks) you find people talk about hitting "real hunger" and it's startling different experience from everyday hunger. I expect there are related physical changes but it's quite a different mental sensation - it's almost like fear - the feeling of an alarm cord being pulled and an "oh shit, I have to eat now".
    - 5y ago

mannykannot 5y ago

I do not think anyone is suggesting it is not a behavior, but what seems curious about it is the question of motivation, given that it quite often is a voluntary behavior with little or no prospect of having tangible benefits outside of that person's mental state.