It's not young people who are most curious, it's older people, according to UvA research

“During the weekend, you mainly see kids at Nemo having a good time, but during museum night adults have just as much fun.”

What did you expect to get from the research?

'Be able to distinguish between multiple types of curiosity and see differences between ages. We also want to check whether it is true that differences between forms of curiosity only appear at a later age. You can really call children's viewing behavior and orientation towards new information curiosity, but you cannot yet talk about such different forms as perceptual or cognitive curiosity. According to the differentiation hypothesis, this distinction does not arise until a later age. Does this hypothesis also apply to curiosity? We can't say anything about this until we collect all the data. We are looking for more women over 50, men under 50 and even people under 25.

Your preliminary results show that older people are actually more curious than younger people. how is that possible? Little children are very curious, aren't they?

“This is an idea that has broad support, but I'm not convinced that young children are that curious.” People of different ages also have a great difference in knowledge. Children create a mini-theory about how the world works through all the experiences they have. This is not quite true yet, so you are likely to encounter inconsistencies with what you expect and this raises questions. We call this curiosity, but is it actually true? Rules also play an important role in inquisitive behavior. During the weekend you mainly see kids at Nemo having a good time, but during Museum Night adults are having just as much fun.'

What does it say about young people that older people seem more curious?

“I think students, who are bombarded with knowledge all day long, live in a very different context than older people. Older people, especially retirees, say they have more space to delve into topics. I think that plays a role.”

The final results of the curious research will be published during the Science Weekend on October 5 and 6. Involved The research could continue until June 2024.