What makes us curious

He also interviewed 10 exceptionally curious people living today, among them linguist Noam Chomsky and the virtuoso lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, Brian May who also holds a PhD in astrophysics , and presents fascinating conclusions from these conversations. Skip to main content. Enter some words or an event code to find.

This program is over. Hope you didn't miss it! Knowledge Wharton: Is there an element of curiosity that is enhanced by living in the digital age? There are two things to remember. Therefore, you cannot find those answers on the internet or Wikipedia. The other thing is that what the internet allows us to do is to satisfy what has been dubbed specific curiosity, namely you want to know a very particular detail.

Who wrote this or that book? What was the name of the actor in that film? The digital age allows you to find the answer very quickly. There are times when we become obsessed with wanting to know what that information is.

In that sense, the digital age helps us because we can find that information, and that may drive us to look for something else about this. And that would drive perhaps epistemic curiosity, which is this love of knowledge and wanting to learn new things.

Knowledge Wharton: Do you think love of knowledge is truly the driving force behind curiosity and the other pieces are part of the spider web off the core? Livio: Not necessarily. There have been all kinds of experiments in neuroscience with functional MRI, where they make people curious then put them in these MRI machines and see which parts of their brains are activated. Knowledge Wharton: When you think historically, there have been world leaders who have wanted to snuff out curiosity.

Some people would say President Trump is trying to do that. Have you seen that as a component in the world? Livio: Of course. We all know about the Middle Ages, the medieval times when curiosity was almost taken out of existence. It was mostly the church that wanted to convey to the masses the feeling that everything worth knowing is already known.

They built walls around all types of knowledge and really oppressed curiosity in this way. The Taliban destroyed works of art.

There have been book burnings over the years. The Nazis made a degenerate art exhibit where they tried to deface all the modern painters. There definitely have been oppressive regimes and ideologies that try to stifle curiosity. Livio: Yes. I mentioned already two of those types of curiosity: perceptual and epistemic.

There is also something that has been dubbed diversive curiosity. There is a negative to diversive curiosity because your attention is turned away. But there is the element of searching or looking for information. They connect with friends. They connect with people, sometimes across countries.

Knowledge Wharton: Do you think it affects curiosity in general because it has become such an attractive piece to our society? Livio: That may have eventually some negative consequences if people just stay at home and connect through all kinds of digital devices. I can see all kinds of shortcomings for that type of a society. But at the same time, the really important questions like advances in science and so on cannot be found through digital devices.

Knowledge Wharton: You take time in the book to really delve into the science of this. Tell us what you found and why science has been so intrigued by this. This has been research by psychologists, cognitive scientists and neuroscientists. There are two parts to this.

One is to understand our state of mind when we are curious. I alluded to that in that one type of curiosity creates an unpleasant sensation and another creates an anticipation of reward.

Greek mythology contains many stories of mortal punishment inflicted upon humans who were too curious, and the suppression of curiosity is a common tool to subjugate others. In some cultures, curiosity is even seen a form of greed to know unnecessary things. We call it morbid curiosity. Livio goes to great lengths to interview notably curious men and women, but after finishing the book, I'm not sure his subjects are more curious than anyone else.

What sets his interviewees apart — including Brian May, the lead guitarist for Queen, and Martin Rees, a world-renowned cosmologist — is that they're uniquely successful. Their curiosity is notable because they are notable. But Livio fails to demonstrate that these virtuosos derive their talent from curiosity. The author also has a few ideas about to how sustain and even foster the thirst for new knowledge as we age.