Curiosity

"Curious" redirects here. For other uses, see Curious (disambiguation) and Curiosity (disambiguation).
Space and telescopes have been a quintessential symbol for curiosity.[1]
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Curiosity (from Latin cūriōsitās, from cūriōsus "careful, diligent, curious", akin to cura "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals.[2][3] Curiosity helps human development, from which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill.[4]

The term curiosity can also denote the behavior, characteristic, or emotion of being curious, in regard to the desire to gain knowledge or information. Curiosity as a behavior and emotion is the driving force behind human development, such as progress in science, language, and industry.[5]

Curiosity can be considered to be an evolutionary adaptation based on an organism's ability to learn.[6] Certain curious animals (namely, corvids, octopuses, dolphins, elephants, rats, etc.) will pursue information in order to adapt to their surrounding and learn how things work.[7] This behavior is termed neophilia, the love of new things. For animals, a fear of the unknown or the new, neophobia, is much more common, especially later in life.[8]

  1. ^ "Inspiring with Astronomy". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  2. ^ Berlyne DE (August 1954). "A theory of human curiosity". British Journal of Psychology. 45 (3): 180–191. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1954.tb01243.x. PMID 13190171.
  3. ^ Berlyne DE (August 1955). "The arousal and satiation of perceptual curiosity in the rat". Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. 48 (4): 238–246. doi:10.1037/h0042968. PMID 13252149.
  4. ^ Zuss M (2012). The Practice of Theoretical Curiosity. New York: Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-9-40072-117-3.
  5. ^ Keller H, Schneider K, eds. (1994). Curiosity and Exploration. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0-387-54867-8.
  6. ^ Wang, Maya Z (2019). "Monkeys are curious about counterfactual outcomes". Cognition. 189: 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2019.03.009. PMC 8029581. PMID 30889493.
  7. ^ Heinrich, Bernd (1995). "Neophilia and exploration in juvenile common ravens, Corvus corax". Animal Behaviour. 50 (3): 695–704. doi:10.1016/0003-3472(95)80130-8.
  8. ^ Miller, Rachael (2022). "Socio-ecological correlates of neophobia in corvids". Current Biology. 32 (1–6): 74–85.e4. Bibcode:2022CBio...32E..74M. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.045. PMID 3479369.