Curiosity
Why curiosity is good for your brain, your well-being and your ability to navigate uncertainty.
Curiosity. I have it in mega amounts.
Part of my neurodivergent experience is an almost insatiable desire to understand why things work the way they do. I'm rarely satisfied with a surface-level explanation. I want to dig deeper, connect the dots and understand what's actually going on. One question inevitably leads to another, and before I know it, I've disappeared down a rabbit hole of information that I hadn't even intended to explore.
I also find people endlessly fascinating. Their stories, their behaviour, their motivations and the experiences that have shaped them. I love understanding what makes people tick.
My kids call it being nosey. I prefer curious.
And despite the old saying that curiosity killed the cat, I'm not remotely concerned. Curiosity fuels me. It keeps my mind active, my enthusiasm alive and my world interesting. I have an enormous appetite for knowledge and, as I've been known to declare, I'm a learning slut!
It turns out that my love of curiosity isn't just a personality quirk. There's some rather fascinating science behind it, too.
The Science Behind Curiosity
The inspiration for writing this blog came from one of Dr David Hamilton's fascinating emails. He has a wonderful way of bringing science to life, and this particular email explored the neuroscience of curiosity. Naturally, it piqued mine, and I found myself wanting to investigate further!
What particularly caught my attention was the relationship between curiosity, dopamine and memory.
A 2014 study by neuroscientist Matthias Gruber and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, explored what happens in the brain when we're curious. The researchers found that states of heightened curiosity were associated with increased activity in areas of the brain involved in reward and motivation, including regions connected to dopamine signalling.
Dopamine is often described as the brain's pleasure chemical, but that's a rather simplistic explanation. It's also involved in motivation, anticipation and learning. It's part of what encourages us to seek out information and experiences that we find rewarding.
Even more interestingly, the researchers discovered that curiosity could enhance memory. Participants were better at remembering answers to questions they were curious about, but they also showed improved memory for unrelated information presented during those curious states.
In other words, curiosity appears to put the brain into a state that's particularly receptive to learning.
The hippocampus, a brain region important for forming memories, also played a role in this process. The findings suggest that curiosity can influence how effectively we encode and retain information.
Now, isn't that fascinating? The very act of wanting to know something may help us remember more.
For someone like me, who positively delights in learning new things, that's rather wonderful news.
That Itch to Know More
Psychologist and economist George Loewenstein proposed something called the information-gap theory of curiosity back in 1994.
The idea is that curiosity emerges when we become aware of a gap between what we know and what we want to know. That gap creates a desire to find the missing information.
Think about the last time someone started telling you a story and then got distracted before reaching the interesting bit. Or when you heard an unusual fact and immediately wanted to know more. Perhaps you've started researching something entirely practical and somehow ended up reading about a completely unrelated subject two hours later.
That urge to close the knowledge gap is curiosity at work.
I recognise this in myself constantly. My brain seems to collect questions faster than I can answer them, and I genuinely enjoy the process of discovery. Sometimes the information is useful for my work, sometimes it helps me understand another person, and sometimes it's simply interesting.
Not everything we learn needs to have a practical purpose. There is enormous pleasure in learning for the sheer joy of it.
Curiosity, Anxiety and the Unknown
What I found particularly interesting in Dr Hamilton's email was the suggestion that curiosity can change how we experience uncertainty.
Uncertainty isn't always comfortable. When we don't know what's going to happen, our minds can quickly start imagining everything that might go wrong. We ask ourselves whether we'll cope, whether we'll make the right decision or whether something unpleasant is waiting around the corner.
Anxiety tends to draw our attention towards potential threats. Curiosity, on the other hand, encourages us to explore possibilities.
Research by psychologist Todd Kashdan and colleagues has examined curiosity as an important dimension of psychological well-being, including our willingness to explore unfamiliar experiences and engage with uncertainty.
That doesn't mean curiosity magically switches off anxiety. Our nervous systems are considerably more complicated than that, and there are times when uncertainty genuinely feels threatening. However, cultivating curiosity may give us another way to approach situations where our instinct is to retreat.
Instead of immediately asking, "What if this goes wrong?", we might ask, "I wonder what could happen?"
Instead of "What if I can't do this?", perhaps "I wonder what I might learn from trying?"
The circumstances haven't necessarily changed, but our relationship with them might.
Curiosity creates an opportunity to explore rather than automatically avoid.
I think that's a particularly valuable distinction because well-being isn't about eliminating uncomfortable emotions. It's about developing different ways of responding to our experiences.
Curiosity and My Neurodivergent Brain
As someone who is AuDHD (autistic and ADHD), curiosity is a significant part of how I experience the world.
I love exploring ideas, making connections and understanding systems. I can become completely absorbed in subjects that capture my interest, sometimes losing all sense of time in the process.
Of course, neurodivergence isn't one universal experience. Not every autistic or ADHD person relates to curiosity in the same way, and curiosity certainly isn't exclusive to neurodivergent people.
But for me, the desire to understand is deeply woven into how I think.
There's an interesting contradiction here, too. My brain loves novelty and discovery, yet uncertainty and unexpected change can sometimes be incredibly uncomfortable. I can happily explore an unfamiliar subject for hours while finding an unexpected disruption to my plans rather less delightful!
Curiosity and a need for predictability can coexist.
And perhaps that's why I find the science so interesting. It helps explain why exploring something unknown can sometimes feel exciting, while other unknowns feel overwhelming. Context, choice, perceived safety and our capacity at that particular moment all matter.
Curiosity isn't a demand to embrace every uncertainty. Sometimes the most compassionate response is to acknowledge that we need familiarity, reassurance or rest.
Why Curiosity Matters for Well-being
When we talk about looking after our well-being, we tend to focus on familiar things such as sleep, exercise, nutrition, boundaries and managing stress. All incredibly important, of course.
But I think curiosity deserves a place in that conversation.
Curiosity encourages us to remain engaged with the world. It invites us to question assumptions, discover different perspectives and recognise that there may be more than one way of understanding a situation.
It can also help us approach ourselves with greater compassion.
This is something I regularly explore in my coaching and EFT work. Rather than immediately judging an emotional response or trying to get rid of it, we can become curious about what's happening.
Why might I be reacting this way? What is this feeling telling me? Is there something I haven't considered? What might I need right now?
Those questions create room for reflection rather than criticism.
And when we're curious about other people, we may become more willing to listen, understand their perspectives and recognise the experiences behind their behaviour.
That doesn't mean we have to agree with everyone or abandon our boundaries. It simply means being open to the possibility that there's something we don't yet understand.
For someone who finds human behaviour endlessly interesting, this is probably why curiosity has always been such a natural part of my coaching practice.
Making More Room for Curiosity
The lovely thing about curiosity is that we don't necessarily need to make it another task on our already overcrowded to-do lists.
We can begin by noticing what catches our attention. Perhaps it's a conversation, a book, something in nature or a question that pops into our heads while we're doing something entirely mundane.
We can give ourselves permission to explore without needing an immediate outcome.
We can also practise approaching our own thoughts with curiosity, particularly when we notice ourselves becoming judgemental or anxious. A gentle "I wonder why I'm feeling this way?" can sometimes be more helpful than telling ourselves we shouldn't feel it.
And perhaps we can stop treating every unanswered question as a problem that needs solving immediately. Sometimes it's enough to sit with the question and allow our understanding to develop.
There is, however, one important caveat. Curiosity shouldn't become another form of pressure. We don't have to turn every difficult experience into a learning opportunity, and sometimes the healthiest thing we can do is stop investigating and simply rest.
Even a learning slut needs a day off occasionally!
Curiosity Didn't Kill the Cat After All
The more I learn about curiosity, the more I appreciate what a remarkable human quality it is.
It drives discovery, encourages learning, helps us make connections and can offer a different perspective when life feels uncertain.
For me, it's also a source of enormous joy. I can't imagine a life in which I stopped asking questions, exploring ideas or wanting to understand people and the world around me.
So, if you're someone who asks a million questions, follows fascinating tangents or finds yourself endlessly intrigued by the way things work, perhaps it's time to celebrate that curiosity rather than apologise for it.
And if your family calls you nosey, well, you're in good company.
Curiosity didn't kill the cat. Perhaps it simply gave the cat a much more interesting life.
I'd love to leave you with a question: What are you curious about right now, and when did you last give yourself permission to explore something simply because it interested you?
You never know where that next question might lead.
Research and Further Reading
Gruber, M. J., Gelman, B. D., & Ranganath, C. (2014). States of Curiosity Modulate Hippocampus-Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic Circuit. Neuron, 84(2), 486–496.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.08.060
Loewenstein, G. (1994). The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), 75–98.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.1.75
Kashdan, T. B., Rose, P., & Fincham, F. D. (2004). Curiosity and Exploration: Facilitating Positive Subjective Experiences and Personal Growth Opportunities. Journal of Personality Assessment, 82(3), 291–305.
https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa8203_05
