Curiosity has long been hypothesised as a rational process of weighing up possible outcomes. Arianne Cohen looks at new research that suggests the attribute is more closely correlated with error.
'You thought you were so creative! Turns out that your penchant for variability, such as when you toss a new ingredient into a recipe or follow a creative hunch into the unknown, is often driven by brain errors that are imperceptible to you. Your curiosity is a mistake.
A study published in Nature Neuroscience this month found that our brains are not so savvy at evaluating our options—if they were, our minds would stick to the well-known, safe options. Researchers took brain MRIs of a hundred people playing a slot-machine game that presented two options, one of which had won them money in previous tests. They found that the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region that regulates decision-making, lit up when participants made errors in reasoning and that many of the subjects’ “curious” choices were a result of the brain’s failure to reason.'... Keep reading on Fast Company
'You thought you were so creative! Turns out that your penchant for variability, such as when you toss a new ingredient into a recipe or follow a creative hunch into the unknown, is often driven by brain errors that are imperceptible to you. Your curiosity is a mistake.
A study published in Nature Neuroscience this month found that our brains are not so savvy at evaluating our options—if they were, our minds would stick to the well-known, safe options. Researchers took brain MRIs of a hundred people playing a slot-machine game that presented two options, one of which had won them money in previous tests. They found that the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region that regulates decision-making, lit up when participants made errors in reasoning and that many of the subjects’ “curious” choices were a result of the brain’s failure to reason.'... Keep reading on Fast Company