Two days ago, we caught a baby mouse roaming about in our food pantry, being the god of destruction, chewing through aluminum and plastic bags of nettle tea leaves, sesame seeds, and comfrey leaves. I make an effort t capture these rodents so they could be released into the outer world safely. I didn’t have time to release it immediately giving me time to observe its behavior which was different than any other mouse I had caught and released. This one was feisty and tenacious in finding any opening in it’s metal cage to cut through or squeeze out.
When I was afraid it would suffer broken spirit due to long-term imprisonment, I put the cage gently into a plastic bag, walked to the edge of our woods. I looked down and another different behavior was shown as the little mouse had clawed to the top of the cage so it could peer out the opening to see where I was taking it.
I put down the cage and opening it’s gate. It immediately shot out and found refuge in rotting leaves.
Another different behavior, it pushed its little head out to peek at me one last time before hiding in the dark pile of leaves.
“Bye, bye Jumpy,” I said to honor the bonding feeling I had sensed. This prompted me to ask, Why is curiosity important in psychology?
Curiosity — a state of active interest or genuinely wanting to know more about something — allows you to embrace unfamiliar circumstances, giving you a greater opportunity to experience discovery and joy. Indeed, studies show that life is better when you’re curious.
Is curiosity a psychological trait?
Curious people are psychologically flexible in that they are adept at committing effort toward interesting and deeply cherished goals despite the presence of pain/distress/tension (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010; Silvia, 2008).