Curiosity, the Dopamine Cycle, and Mere Exposure
How curiosity affects the relational fabric of our communities.
In short: Curiosity is a simple concept and a powerful motivator; our brains reward us for encountering new things. As we get older and more jaded, the creativity and perspective-shifting power of curiosity is engaged less frequently; but a consistent pursuit of a curious orientation to the world and the people in it empowers us and others to be the best version of ourselves.
It was not surprising for me to find that curiosity is closely tied to the same mechanisms as metacognition in the brain. I was surprised to find a great depth of research surrounding curiosity as a cognitive state (I have listed some of the more interesting reads at the end).
Curiosity as a Pillar of Practice
On my website, you will find my Pillars of Practice. They are the guiding concepts for how I approach mental health, clinical work, and my life. Curiosity over judgment is one of those Pillars. I have a theory that you cannot be curious and judgemental at the same time and I have not found that many benefits come from being judgemental.
This may seem like trite drivel but consider this, if you are judging, you are assuming that you know everything you need to know to draw your conclusion and foist your assertion on the person or thing in question. If you are invested in mental health, you must be similarly invested in the value of the people retaining that mental health or you have betrayed yourself. To honor the value of a human is to honor their free will and uniqueness. It is very likely you do not know why they chose to do something. So, opt for being curious rather than judgemental.
In general, a relationship at any level of intimacy relies on the cooperative work of two people who desire to understand each other. When there is a gap in effort or willingness to understand, there is miscommunication. This is a vast oversimplification of a very complex process, but I do believe maintaining a curious orientation can go a long way in resolving these kinds of issues.
Curiosity in Practice
It seems like every decade we are on this earth and witness the world in ever-increasing detail, we become more jaded. I have experienced this personally and, forgive me, but I will assume that you have experienced this to some degree. Last year, I was reading in my second favorite genre, adult fantasy. I read about an immortal being who experienced ennui after thousands of years of life only for it to be banished by a woman with novel features and a daring personality (not my favorite fantasy trope but it is relevant to my point, bear with me). It takes many fewer years for humans to feel listless. We lose our curiosity and we know everything — except we don’t.
What, then, is it like for a human who doesn’t know everything to assume they do? Who suffers and who gains? I propose that we all lose. Research on curiosity is older than you would think and runs quite deep. A consensus among researchers is that curiosity is associated with greater life satisfaction and broader global knowledge. This feels obvious when we realize that as parents, we spend quite a long time fielding questions from curious toddlers and curbing the curious but danger-laden meanderings of those same toddlers. Our toddlers learn because they are motivated by curiosity.
Recent research by Gruber and Ranganath (2019) has shown that curiosity enhances memory retention and focus. The brain is committing more resources to greedily understanding new stimuli and using that information to form better future predictions. Again, the brain is facilitating survival here by making sure we are surprised less often and rewarded for our investment in finding answers. In my podcast this week, I explore the seven ways curiosity benefits us in greater detail if you are interested in all the ways you can expand your mind with a habit of curiosity.
Curiosity makes you more aware, awareness breeds mental efficiency, and mental efficiency equals intellectual agility. The specifics on how this happens (spoiler: linguistics are involved) are what I am building to and will be the topic of a future podcast.
Exercise: Let’s Experiement
Change is hard for everyone and so to get over the obstacle of commitment to something new, I typically employ this exercise in my personal and professional life.
Choose a small amount of time that feels comfortable for the change you are trying to create. Pretend you are the subject and scientist in this situation and try the new behavior for a small amount of time. During your experiment, remain curious and record all the good and bad that comes from your new behavior. You can choose to continue experiments for small amounts of time or you can stop at the end of the first interval. Either way, you will have experienced life with consistent change and have a lot of information about why it may or may not be worth it to change.
This exercise can be altered in so many ways to make it more applicable to you or a client. You can record your moods, symptoms, reaction to medications, and even how this new behavior changes other habitual behaviors. It creates a situation where you are more aware of yourself in your external world and how your external world engages your internal world.
Curiosity to Reduce Problematic Engagement
My family is Jamaican. Jamaica’s national slogan is ‘Out of many, one people’. If you looked at my wedding photos where much of my paternal and maternal extended family can be viewed, none of us look alike. My family, with the representation of east Asian, southern Asian, African, European, and Cuban heritages, is a great example of Jamaica’s slogan. What is fantastic is that America boasts an even larger melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. Regardless of who we call family, many of us have natural access to other cultures simply by talking to someone new at work, at the coffee shop, or at a friend’s holiday party. It seems that in modern America, it is harder to not have a diverse friend group.
If being habitually curious increases the number of intentional engagements in local communities, we can assume that we would be increasing the number of engagements between people who do not look alike, have the same beliefs, or exist in the same cultures. The mere exposure effect says that the more familiar something becomes (that is, the more we come across a new person or thing until is familiar to us) the more favorable it becomes. And, there is research showing that this is the case for strangers of different races.
If we follow this vein of thought, curiosity could be the answer to many problematic behaviors we encounter when our world and culture are changing around us to accommodate what was once thought of as taboo. I am not suggesting that curiosity replaces behaviors like reading and seeking to understand people who are not like us. I am proposing that being constantly curious, rather than judgemental, will motivate us to seek out this knowledge rather than labeling the new ‘other’.
Point of Interest: So, if the mere exposure effect says that the familiar becomes more favorable, what does that mean for the regularly unfamiliar? Or, more specifically, what does that mean for things that we have determined for ourselves should remain foreign and unfamiliar? If you are interested, this is where I will likely go next.
Remedy House Podcast | Curiosity, the Dopamine Cycle, and Mere Exposure
Suggested reading on the topic: books, research articles, and Remedy House blog posts.
A bit on curiosity and memory retention by Gruber and Ranganath. (Article)
The connection between well-being and trait curiosity. (Article)
Recent connections between curiosity and neurology/psychology. (Article)
More on the Mere Exposure Effect. (Article)
A lengthy treatise on curiosity from 1994. (Article)
The Molecule of More (Book)
Social Chemistry (Book)
Descartes’ Error (Book)
All sources are linked or mentioned directly in the article. This article is heavily influenced by the books and articles linked above and combined with my knowledge of the various topics. A friendly reminder: I've done my research, but you should, too! Check my sources against your own, and always exercise sound judgment.