Character strength · Wisdom
Curiosity as a character strength: meaning and examples
The short answer: curiosity is the habit of finding things interesting, whether that is people, places, ideas or how a machine works, and wanting to explore them for their own sake. It is one of the 24 character strengths of the VIA classification, in the Wisdom family: the strengths of the mind.
What curiosity looks like
Curiosity is less about knowing a lot and more about wanting to find out. People with a lot of it tend to:
- ask "why?" and "how?" more often than they say "I know"
- read the plaque at the museum, the label on the jar, the footnote in the article
- enjoy meeting people unlike themselves, and ask them about their lives
- get absorbed in a new hobby, topic or place, sometimes for hours
- feel restless when every day looks the same
In everyday life
At work, curiosity shows up as the colleague who asks how a process really works before changing it, or who reads beyond the brief. In relationships, it looks like real interest in what the other person thinks and does, with follow-up questions rather than polite nods. On vacation, it is the person who wanders off the main street to see what is around the corner.
Curiosity also makes difficult moments easier. Faced with a problem, a curious person is more likely to wonder "what is going on here?" than to feel only frustration, and that question often leads somewhere useful.
Curiosity and the strengths close to it
- Love of learning is about mastering a subject or skill in depth. Curiosity is broader and lighter: it is drawn to many things, and does not need to master any of them.
- Creativity is about producing new ideas. Curiosity is about taking in what is new. The two often feed each other.
- Judgment weighs evidence before deciding. Curiosity gathers the questions that judgment then sorts through.
When curiosity is overdone, or underused
Like every strength, curiosity works best in the right amount. Overdone, it can turn into scattered attention, a trail of half-finished projects, or questions that feel nosy to a more private person. Underused, life can feel flat and routine, and new situations feel more threatening than interesting.
The aim is not more curiosity at all costs, but curiosity aimed well: at people and problems that matter to you.
Is curiosity one of your top strengths?
Ask yourself:
- When you have a free hour, do you tend to look something up, try something new, or explore somewhere you have not been?
- Do people describe you as interested, or as asking a lot of questions?
- Do you get bored quickly with routine, even when it is comfortable?
If you answered yes to most of these, curiosity may be one of your signature strengths. The only way to know how it compares with your other 23 is to rank them.
Find your top strengths with the free test
Where this comes from
The 24 character strengths were described by psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman in Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification (2004). Happy Me's assessment uses public-domain questions from the International Personality Item Pool and is not affiliated with the VIA Institute.