CURIOSITY X EVOLUTION

There are, broadly speaking, two main camps”, says Dr Kangas. 

“The first is what’s called ‘Curiosity-Drive Theory’ or ‘Perceptual Curiosity’, which says we pursue knowledge to alleviate uncomfortable feelings of uncertainty or the shock of not knowing something (a trait often associated with people prone to anxiety, for example). 

The other is ‘Optimal-Arousal Theory’ or ‘Epistemic Curiosity’, and that’s essentially a pleasure-driven curiosity that drives people who we might say have a ‘thirst for knowledge’ and who consider learning itself to be a reward of sorts”. For Dr Kangas, though, the more likely scenario is what she calls the compatibilist approach: combining elements of both theories, with the emphasis on either drive or arousal ultimately different for every person based on all the various social, cultural and genetic factors that help shape who we are over a lifetime.