What an Animated Taco Reveals About Curiosity and Patience
New research shows that curiosity can prioritize the journey over the outcome
鈥淲hen we think of curiosity, we often think of this need for immediate answers鈥, said Abby Hsiung, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and lead author of the new research paper. 鈥淏ut we found that when people were more curious they were actually more willing to wait.鈥
The findings appeared October 16 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
鈥淲hen we watch TV shows or football games, we鈥檙e watching that information evolve over time, uncertain about how it鈥檚 all going to end鈥, said Hsiung. 鈥淚 wanted to know if higher curiosity would push people to seek, or to avoid getting an immediate 鈥榮poiler鈥.鈥
Hsiung drew inspiration from short cooking videos that are popular on Instagram and TikTok.
鈥淭hese videos caught my attention because even though they鈥檙e so short, they manage to develop a narrative and suspense so that you鈥檙e invested and curious about how the lasagna, for example, will all come together.鈥
So Hsiung got out her digital paintbrush and made a series of 30-second animated line drawing videos that, like the cooking clips, eventually ended up as something highly recognizable, like a taco or a dog.
2,043 adults from across the U.S. then watched 25 of these short line-drawing videos online. Participants in Hsiung鈥檚 study were asked along the way how curious they were, how they felt, and to guess what the drawing would become. Viewers also had a 鈥榮poiler鈥 button to skip ahead to see the final drawing.
Hsiung and her team were surprised to find that when people were curious, they withheld from hitting the 鈥榮poiler鈥 button and kept watching the drawings unfold. It was when people were not curious that they tended to opt for an instant answer.
鈥淐uriosity didn鈥檛 just motivate getting answers, it increased the value of the journey itself鈥, said , a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke and senior author of the new report.
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The study also found that curiosity increased at different stages of watching these videos.
鈥淲e saw higher curiosity during moments where it seemed like the drawing could turn into anything and also when participants were starting to really home in on a single answer" said co-author Jia-Hou Poh, Ph.D., a fellow postdoctoral researcher at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
Curiosity also stirred up people's feeling of joy, explaining why people kept watching the line drawing video even when they could just hit a button to get the answer right away.
鈥淭his helps explain why people often avoid spoilers,鈥 said , a fellow senior author on the study and Duke professor of psychology and neuroscience. "Knowing the end of a new TV series, for example, can remove the enjoyment of watching the plot unravel.鈥
Hsiung and her team suggests that aside from watching TV shows, stoking curiosity might also help enhance motivation in the classroom to potentially improve learning. A recent study from Dr. Adcock and Poh found that increasing . This latest finding highlights that curiosity can also bolster persistence throughout a learning journey, which is often needed for deep understanding.
鈥淏y understanding what sparks curiosity, especially how it arises from our own ideas, we can find more ways to cultivate it and benefit from the learning it promotes.鈥 said Dr. Adcock.
Support for the research came from the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
CITATION: 鈥淐uriosity Evolves As Information Unfolds,鈥 Abigail Hsiung, Jia-Hou Poh, Scott A. Huettel, R. Alison Adcock. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, October 16, 2023. DOI: