Are we all Curious in the same way?
Is it possible to differentiate between different types of Curiosity?
Can a test be created for us to distinguish between types of Curiosity?
Those are some of the questions researchers from George Mason University investigated and published a paper in a reputable psychology journal. Their intriguing discoveries in this seminal study will lead to more scientific investigation of the beautiful phenomena that is Curiosity, furthering our understanding and explorations.
Using a selection of questions and rating scales from well tested personality questionnaires, they asked over 500 people about their Curiosity with a battery measures. Testing such things as personality, values, attitudes, passions and expertise, social media use, magazine and website usage through an online questionnaire. From this data their initial statistical analysis indicated 5 inter-related but independent dimensions of curiosity : Joyous Exploration, Deprivation Sensitivity, Stress Tolerance, Social Curiosity, Thrill-seeking. So they created a new model and a 25 yes or no questionnaire to put this to the test.
This contrasted with previous academic attempts at categorising Curiosity and “rather than choosing between models, our 5-dimensional model integrates them, with the additional inclusion of other bodies of work capturing social curiosity, thrill or sensation seeking, and the distress tolerance required to pursue the new, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.” Factors which TENCLUB also believes are important to the exploration of what Curiosity is and how it is experienced within us all.
They tested this newly proposed model against more data found something even more Curious as a result. It seems from clustering the responses that there are four ‘types of curious person’ out there: The Fascinated, The Problem Solvers, The Empathisers, The Avoiders. These four types are curious in different ways and as can be presumed the “Fascinated captured the archetype of a highly curious person – someone possessing a psychological strength that enables them to explore, discover, develop passionate interests, and uncover their full potential.”
Do you consider yourself a Fascinated person?
Curious to answer 25 yes or no questions to see if you are?
The newly proposed 5 Dimensions and 4 curiosity types offer TENCLUB a fascinating starting point from which to explore further what Curiosity is and how it manifests itself within us all. We support members in their Curiosity-driven explorations, seeking to bring an activation of all types of Curious people in our network towards becoming the Fascinated many.
Want to start exploring which type of Curious person you are?