Curiosity Killed the Cat: Investigating a Link between Curiosity and Risk-Taking Propensity

<p>Curiosity, or the drive for information and experiences that motivates exploration, plays a role in intellectual development. Curiosity is perhaps essential to education and intellectual achievement, but curiosity research is limited. Curiosity has been thought a motivation for learning and a cause of non-sanctioned behaviors and behavioral disorders. This prompts a connection with decision-making, specifically risky decision-making, perhaps with curiosity as a motivating force. In Experiment 1, college students were primed with curiosity, then participated in a lab-based behavioral measure of risk-taking, the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, and answered self-report inventories concerning risk-taking and curiosity. In Experiment 2, 4th and 5th grade students were primed with curiosity and then participated in a modified version of the BART. In both experiments, risk-taking did not vary as a function of curiosity. Limitations to the current research, and potential avenues for future investigations, are discussed.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Experimental Psychology (M.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Gibson, Carolyn E

Contributors dc:contributor

• Karen Naufel
• Wendy Chambers

• ETD
• Curiosity
• Risk-taking
• Decision-making
• Children
• College students
• Developmental Psychology
• Experimental Analysis of Behavior
• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1135

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-2188