Curiosity: The hunger for knowledge
What happens in your brain when you are curious
🏷️ Categories: Attention, Learning, Motivation, Memory.
There’s a spark that, when ignited, changes everything.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a child or an adult. A scientist or an artist. Whether you're learning to cook or trying to decode the universe. That spark enhances learning, memory, and motivation. That spark is called curiosity, and it’s so powerful it can alter the way your brain encodes memories, makes decisions, and understands the world.
But here’s the real question:
Why does it seem to fade as we grow older?
What would happen if we learned how it works and cultivated it daily?
Let’s explore the psychology and neuroscience of curiosity—because it's a biological drive that, if we learn to steer it, can unlock life-changing opportunities.
Let’s dive into curiosity…
1. Curiosity is not “I’m interested”. It’s a hunger to know
William James, one of the founding figures of psychology, called it the drive toward better cognition (James, 1983). Later, it was compared to hunger or thirst, because something is missing and we seek it out until we’re satisfied (Kidd & Hayden, 2015).
This is what the information-gap theory explains (Loewenstein, 1994).
According to this theory, we feel curious when we perceive a gap between what we know and what we don’t. It doesn’t get triggered when we know nothing. Nor when we know everything. It’s that sweet spot—knowing a little but not the whole story—that ignites the desire to learn more.
Just like in Kang’s 2009 experiments, where people were most curious about questions they almost knew the answer to. That tiny gap lit the spark.
It’s a U-shaped curve.
Too simple, and we’re bored.
Too complex, and we disconnect.
The sweet spot: curiosity.
2. Curiosity changes your brain
Curiosity isn’t just paying attention to something. It changes your brain chemistry. When curiosity is triggered, it activates brain regions related to the reward system and key memory areas like the hippocampus.
In other words: the brain treats information like a reward (Gruber et al., 2014).
When we’re curious, we retain information better, like activating a “sponge effect” that maximizes absorption (Piantadosi et al., 2014). This activation, tied to dopamine (the neurotransmitter for pleasure and motivation), happens even in monkeys at the mere possibility of gaining information (Davis et al., 1950).
They don’t need food, their group, or physical stimuli. Just the opportunity to learn something new.
When the topic hits just the right level of complexity on the curiosity curve, the sponge effect kicks in: the subject captures our full attention and enhances learning.
3. We’re born curious—and then, something gets lost
Even babies already prefer stimuli that are neither too simple nor too complex. They seek that just-right novelty (Kidd & Hayden, 2015).
From a young age, we use mental models and quick rules to make sense of the world. Especially to explore what’s ambiguous. In toy studies, babies explore much more when something doesn’t make sense.
Curiosity blooms in ambiguity.
But over time, the environment discourages this behavior. Fear of being wrong in public, the social pressure to give “the right answer,” gradually dims this playful experimentation.
Curiosity stops being rewarded.
Add to that the overload of shallow stimulation (social media, constant multitasking, trivial content), and the opposite happens: scattered, unfocused curiosity. As psychologist Berlyne said (1954), we shift from epistemic curiosity (the urge to understand deeply) to diversive curiosity (the urge to distract ourselves with something new).
4. Curiosity as a compass
Let’s return to the initial question: Why do we lose curiosity?
The short answer: we don’t stop having it—we stop prioritizing it. We don’t take the time to connect with what gives us that inner spark.
When we feel epistemic curiosity, there's a mix of doubt and excitement about exploring further. It’s an energy that pushes us to learn—and that can open doors to new opportunities through acquired knowledge and skills.
All guided by the pleasure of discovery.
5. How to cultivate curiosity
Here are some science-based practical ideas:
Ask yourself questions: Is there a topic you can’t stop thinking about? An idea that keeps popping up in your notes? Write down questions and spend time investigating. Many of the letters I write are born from fleeting questions like these.
Reduce information noise: Less scrolling, more depth. Thirty minutes of deep reading inspires more than an hour of scrolling. Less info, but more nourishing. That’s the foundation of an informational diet.
Learn in community: Curiosity grows when it’s shared. Talk to people who know more. Ask questions. Listen without needing to be right, and take notes. Mental Garden is just that—the process of shared curiosity.
You don’t need to know everything.
You just need to want to know more than yesterday. As investor Charlie Munger once said, “Try to go to bed a little wiser than when you woke up.”
That’s the whole secret.
✍️ Your turn: Do you make time to follow where your curiosity leads you?
💭 Quote of the day: “She had a great curiosity about life, and was constantly staring and wondering.” — Henry James, Portrait of a Lady.
See you in the next one! 👋
References 📚
Berlyne, D. E. (1954). A theory of human curiosity. British Journal Of Psychology General Section, 45(3), 180-191. URL
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. URL
Davis, R. T., Settlage, P. H., & Harlow, H. F. (1950). Performance of Normal and Brain-Operated Monkeys on Mechanical Puzzles with and without Food Incentive. The Pedagogical Seminary And Journal Of Genetic Psychology, 77(2), 305-311. URL
James, W. (1983). Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (Vol. 12). Harvard University Press.
Kang, M. J., Hsu, M., Krajbich, I. M., Loewenstein, G., McClure, S. M., Wang, J. T., & Camerer, C. F. (2009). The Wick in the Candle of Learning: Epistemic Curiosity Activates Reward Circuitry and Enhances Memory. Psychological Science, 20(8), 963-973. URL
Kidd, C., & Hayden, B. Y. (2015). The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity. Neuron, 88(3), 449-460. URL
Loewenstein, G. (1994). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), 75-98. URL
Munger, C. T. (2023). Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. Stripe Press.