Curiosity

Curiosity (from Latin cūriōsitās, from cūriōsus "careful, diligent, curious", akin to cura "care") can be a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. It can also refer to something (an event, object, person, etc.) which can cause curiosity. When it is for an object it may be called a curio, and a collection of curios or curiosities may be stored together as a collection called curiosities. The term curiosity can also denote the behavior, characteristic, or emotion of being curious, in regard to the desire to gain knowledge or information. Curiosity helps human development, from which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill. Curiosity as a behavior and emotion is the driving force behind human development, such as progress in science, language, and industry. Curiosity can be considered to be an evolutionary adaptation based on an organism's ability to learn. Certain curious animals (namely, corvids, octopuses, dolphins, elephants, rats, etc.) will pursue information in order to adapt to their surrounding and learn how things function. This behavior is termed neophilia, the love of new things. For animals, a fear of the unknown or the new, neophobia, is much more common, especially later in life.