A New Read on Curiosity

A while back I wrote here that curiosity isn't a character trait but a state. And that we stop putting ourselves into that state, not because we've lost the knack, but because somewhere along the way we decide that being grown up means having answers instead of asking questions.

A study I came across this week gives that thought a precision I didn't have before.

Whatley, Murayama, Sakaki and Castel went through data from more than 1,200 adults between 20 and 84, published in PLOS ONE in 2025. They looked at something curiosity research rarely keeps clean: the line between trait curiosity and state curiosity.

Trait curiosity is the baseline. The stable disposition, how open someone is, in general, to the new and the unfamiliar. You measure it with questionnaires, statements like "I enjoy exploring new ideas" or "I go looking for information even when I don't need it yet." This kind falls with age. That's the finding we know in our bones, and it's the one that runs most debates about learning later in life.

State curiosity is a different animal. Not a property but a moment. The pull of a specific question in a specific situation, the prickle when you see a gap and want it closed. It's reactive, tied to the thing in front of you. And it climbs with age.

Those two opposite lines are the real find.

The authors' explanation is plain and hard to argue with: older people carry richer prior knowledge. And prior knowledge is one of the strongest triggers of curiosity there is. The more you know, the more precisely you notice what you don't, and the sharper the gap feels. State curiosity, then, doesn't show up despite age. It shows up partly because of the experience age drags along with it.

That turns the picture of the incurious older adult on its head.

We don't get evenly less curious over the years. We get choosier. The broad, aimless openness to anything at all thins out. But the depth of curiosity where something actually catches, where there's a hook to hang it on, grows. That isn't a loss.

For workplace learning it points to one uncomfortable conclusion. Hand older learners broad, thinly contextualised courses and you waste the exact thing they bring to the table. Not more material. Better hooks. You don't force curiosity. You build the places it can catch, and then it shows up on its own.

Surprise yourself.