The Biological Basis for Curiosity

Is there a reason for the intense curiosity some people have that drives them to explore their universe?  Everyone has a certain amount of curiosity, but some people seem to have more than others, and some people seem more willing to take risks to satisfy their curiosity.

To a certain extent, all animals are curious.  Since at first glance it would appear that curiosity is dangerous, why would it be a characteristic that would ensure survival of a species?  The concept that traits such as curiosity, love, caring, hatred – what are often seen as emotional or social characteristics – could develop for evolutionary reasons, is called sociobiology.  Sociobiology argues that just as a physical adaptation such as a color change might give a species better chance at survival, and thus the genetic material for the color change will be passed on to offspring, so too can social characteristics.

For example, why will a mother animal defend her children to the death?  Doing so would seem to be counterproductive.  If the mother dies defending her children, neither she nor her offspring will survive.  However, if there is a chance that defending her children will enable them to survive, then this instinct will increase the chance that her genetic material will be passed on to future generations.  By being a caring mother, and perhaps ensuring that her offspring survive, her genetic material will also survive and be passed on.  Mothers that abandon their children will have far less chance of their genetic material being passed on, so their line will die out.  Thus there is an evolutionary reason for mothers to care for their children.

Of course, there is another way to have your genetic material passed on, and that is to have an incredible number of offspring, and abandon them all.  In this way you need not look after any of them, so you can afford to have a lot more.  There is also an evolutionary reason not to care for your offspring.

Animals that have few offspring, especially when the offspring take a long time to grow to maturity and self-sufficiency – humans for example – generally follow the first method.   Other animals, like fish, often adopt the second.

Too much curiosity can be dangerous.  A baby animal investigating a new event might find it is a trap from a predator.  So what is the evolutionary advantage to being curious?  Curiosity can lead to new discoveries and it is necessary to be curious in order to learn.  The more one learns, the better one will be able to take advantage of one's surroundings.  This will give you an advantage, provided you do not die from the initial event that sparked your curiosity.  You will have learned something that will allow you to survive more effectively in the long term.