The Ecology of Curiosity

Why do some people seem endlessly curious—drawn to new ideas, places, and experiences—while others prefer the comfort of the familiar? We often think of curiosity as a stable personality trait, part of what makes each person unique. Yet recent evidence suggests it may be far more flexible—and adaptive—than we realize. A new study published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences argues that curiosity evolves and fluctuates with our environment. From an evolutionary perspective, curiosity is not just a drive to seek novelty—it’s a strategy shaped by the costs and benefits of exploration.

For both humans and animals, curiosity serves an ancient function: it motivates information seeking. Exploring new places, learning how things work, or understanding others’ behavior all provide knowledge that can improve survival and reproduction. But exploration also involves risk. Searching for something new consumes time and energy and may expose one to failure or harm. Behavioral ecology predicts that exploration should therefore vary with environmental conditions. In secure, resource-rich contexts, the cost of failure is low, and the long-term benefits of information are high. In contrast, in unpredictable or harsh environments, curiosity can be costly: the safest strategy is often to stick to what already works.

Testing the Ecological Hypothesis

The researcher in this study tested this idea using data from 962 U.S. adults. Participants completed a comprehensive measure of curiosity, covering five dimensions: joyous exploration (finding pleasure in learning), deprivation sensitivity (a drive to solve information gaps), stress tolerance, social curiosity, and thrill-seeking. The researchers also measured participants’ socioeconomic status (SES), both current and during childhood, as a proxy for resource availability. The results were remarkably consistent: higher current SES predicted higher curiosity across all five dimensions. People who felt more financially secure reported being more curious, more open to uncertainty, and more willing to take intellectual or social risks. Childhood SES, in contrast, showed little effect. This suggests that curiosity is not fixed early in life but remains flexible, responding dynamically to current ecological conditions.

Authors interpret curiosity as a form of phenotypic plasticity—a behavioral flexibility that allows individuals to adjust to their environments. Rather than being a fixed trait, curiosity may act as a cognitive thermostat, turning up when conditions are stable and safe, and turning down when uncertainty or scarcity makes exploration costly. The same pattern appears across the animal kingdom. Primates, birds, and even bees explore more in safe, resource-rich settings. When energy reserves are high, the potential rewards of exploration outweigh the risks. Humans seem to operate according to the same ecological logic. Our curiosity expands when conditions allow for it and contracts when life demands caution.

Interestingly, the findings also hint at a feedback loop. While economic stability may encourage curiosity, curiosity itself can foster prosperity. People who are more curious often acquire more knowledge and skills, seek new opportunities, and adapt more effectively—all of which can improve socioeconomic outcomes. Over time, curiosity and affluence may reinforce one another in a self-sustaining cycle.

This perspective reframes curiosity not as a rare gift but as an adaptive response to context. The drive to learn and explore is built into our species, but its expression depends on the ecology we inhabit. Curiosity, like any other evolved behavior, is tuned to environmental cues—expanding in abundance, contracting in scarcity. When people feel secure, they look outward, explore, and innovate. When they feel threatened, they conserve and protect. The freedom to explore, it turns out, begins with the feeling that it is safe to do so.