Curiosity across the adult lifespan

The study pulls apart two forms of curiosity and tracks how each one moves across a lifetime. Trait curiosity — the stable disposition, being open to the new in general — falls with age. State curiosity — the situational prickle of wanting one specific answer — climbs. That those two lines run in opposite directions is the core find. It shows that curiosity and age aren't a simple either-or.

A lifespan sample: 1,218 adults between 20 and 84 (Amazon Mechanical Turk, USA). Trait curiosity was measured with the Epistemic Curiosity Scale — ten self-report items ("I enjoy exploring new ideas" and the like). State curiosity was captured through 63 randomly drawn trivia questions: participants rated, on a scale of 1–10, how curious they were about each answer — before it was shown. Analysis ran through multiple regression and mixed-effects models, controlling for education, income, gender and ethnicity.

Curiosity isn't one single thing that rises or falls evenly. Older adults grow choosier, not blanket-less-curious. Their richer prior knowledge produces sharper gaps — and so more intense situational curiosity wherever something catches. For professional development that means: broad offerings with no point of contact waste exactly the potential this group brings. Not more material, but better hooks. State curiosity then shows up on its own.