THE <br> COGNITIVE <br> ITCH
Using the curiosity gap as a catalyst for active learning.
Whether it’s embracing new ways of thinking, adopting new ways of working, or understanding an unfamiliar process or system, learning is crucial to improving performance in any role. And as the pace of technology escalates and the average time in the workforce extends, career-long learning is no longer desirable — it’s essential.
To encourage people’s best and drive business performance in an increasingly volatile, uncertain and changing business landscape, leaders need to implement better ways of learning on the job. And when it comes to promoting learning, there’s no better way than curiosity.
The link between curiosity and learning makes perfect sense. We’re wired to be curious, and from the moment we’re born it plays a major role in our personal development, not to mention the evolution of our species.
When something intrigues us, we’re compelled to investigate. And when we’re inquisitive enough, it completely consumes us. This makes curiosity ridiculously effective at priming people to learn, putting them in the ideal state for experimenting, discovering, learning and improving.
Being curious about a subject puts people in a completely different mental state compared to being forced to learn. There’s a subtle yet powerful shift in mindset that happens when people choose to opt in. They’re more focused, committed to learning and actively engaged.
So with all these benefits, how can we use curiosity to facilitate learning?
The curiosity gap
Novelty, intrigue and surprise are all proven to pique curiosity. But the most effective method is capitalising on a psychological phenomenon known as the curiosity gap.
In the early nineties, behavioural economist George Loewenstein found that we’re at our most curious when there’s a gap between what we know, and what we want to know. An almost obsessive need to close this gap triggers an emotional response — much like a cognitive itch that we only relieve by filling in the blanks.
Loewenstein’s theory found that we can intentionally provoke curiosity by providing a small amount of information while withholding the rest. Marketing and advertising copywriters have been exploiting this phenomenon to gain our attention and influence our behaviour for years. Clickbait headlines tease us with just enough information to pique our curiosity, promising a satisfying revelation with just one click.
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To determine how effective the curiosity gap was in influencing people’s decision making and behaviours, Evan Polman and researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison conducted a series of experiments. One study offered 200 participants a choice between a plain cookie and a delicious, chocolate-dipped, sprinkle-burnished biscuit. Which did most choose? The answer is obvious.
Or is it?
In a cruel twist, the researchers told half the participants that the plain biscuit was a fortune cookie with a personalised message inside. In the group who weren’t given this additional information, a very sensible 80 per cent chose the superior chocolate-dipped cookie. But out of the group who were told the plain biscuit was a fortune cookie, 71 per cent chose the plain biscuit. Curiosity alone caused a majority to make an undeniably inferior cookie choice.
Other studies confirm that we’ll go to more effort simply to satisfy our curiosity. Polman and pals increased the use of stairs in a university building by roughly 10 per cent just by posting trivia questions near the elevator and promising that answers could be found in the stairwell.
These findings demonstrate how effective curiosity can be as a catalyst or trigger to gain attention, encourage learning, and even begin the process of forming new habits.
Practical application
When it comes to learning, the curiosity gap lends itself to a couple of instances:
Incorporated into messaging preceding a learning experience. This draws attention and awareness to the upcoming experience, piquing interest and cognitively framing participants for active learning.
Woven into the way the learning experience is delivered. Rather than dumps of passive information, content can be designed to evoke people’s curiosity and compel them to continue learning voluntarily. This results in far better retention and a higher likelihood of behaviour change.
In both situations, a variety of techniques can be used to evoke the curiosity gap:
Tease people with a small amount of information while withholding the rest.
Drip-feed content in small amounts to keep people hungry for more.
Provide information as a puzzle or quiz for people to fill in the blanks.
Lead with questions rather than statements.
Find interesting facts related to the subject.
Consider segmenting communication where significant differences in knowledge or experience exist. The curiosity gap is more effective when people know a small to moderate amount.
Finally, we need to allow people the opportunity to sate their curiosity in a reasonable time. While the curiosity gap is highly effective at motivating people to learn, they can easily become demotivated if an answer isn’t forthcoming. So — keep the learning achievable and don’t leave them hanging too long.