Faculty
Social Science
Supervisor Name
Dr. Stefan Kohler
Keywords
Curiosity, Feeling of Knowing (FOK), Personality, Epistemic Curiosity (EC), Intolerance of Uncertainty
Description
Curiosity is defined as our desire to acquire new information and leads us to engage in information-seeking behaviours. The present study investigates how personality influences curiosity-based information-seeking behaviours during a state of curiosity induced by unsuccessful memory recall. Specifically, this study assessed the personality traits of deprivation-type (D-type), interest-type (I-type), and intolerance of uncertainty to explore their role in curiosity-based decisions making. Information-seeking choices were examined during unsuccessful recall in a paradigm using face-name pairs. The behaviour was correlated with responses from a series of questionnaires that looked at personality traits associated with curiosity and information-seeking. The findings suggested that information-seeking behaviours were positively related to curiosity. However, the associations between individuals high in the three personality constructs assessed in this study did not have a relationship with wanting to resolve curiosity. The only significant result found was between intolerance of uncertainty and high-low satisfaction rating difference. The finding suggested that when people have a low tolerance for uncertainty, they experience greater satisfaction when it is resolved. Overall results replicate previous studies in the lab and seem to show no relationship between these three traits and curiosity. It is, however, possible that other personality traits influence curiosity and curiosity-seeking behaviour. Future research is needed, however, to explore the role of different personality traits in the variation in information-seeking behaviours during states of curiosity.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my supervisor Dr. Stefan Kohler for all his support and to Greg Brooks for his mentorship over the summer. Could not have done this without you!
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Poster
Included in
The Influence of Personality Trait Variation on Curiosity Seeking Behaviours
Curiosity is defined as our desire to acquire new information and leads us to engage in information-seeking behaviours. The present study investigates how personality influences curiosity-based information-seeking behaviours during a state of curiosity induced by unsuccessful memory recall. Specifically, this study assessed the personality traits of deprivation-type (D-type), interest-type (I-type), and intolerance of uncertainty to explore their role in curiosity-based decisions making. Information-seeking choices were examined during unsuccessful recall in a paradigm using face-name pairs. The behaviour was correlated with responses from a series of questionnaires that looked at personality traits associated with curiosity and information-seeking. The findings suggested that information-seeking behaviours were positively related to curiosity. However, the associations between individuals high in the three personality constructs assessed in this study did not have a relationship with wanting to resolve curiosity. The only significant result found was between intolerance of uncertainty and high-low satisfaction rating difference. The finding suggested that when people have a low tolerance for uncertainty, they experience greater satisfaction when it is resolved. Overall results replicate previous studies in the lab and seem to show no relationship between these three traits and curiosity. It is, however, possible that other personality traits influence curiosity and curiosity-seeking behaviour. Future research is needed, however, to explore the role of different personality traits in the variation in information-seeking behaviours during states of curiosity.