Curiosity as feelings of interest versus deprivation: Relations between curiosity traits and affective states when anticipating information

• Published in: Journal of research in personality 2022-02, Vol.96, p.104164, Article 104164
• Main Authors: Ryakhovskaya, Yana, Jach, Hayley K., Smillie, Luke D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affect; Curiosity; Deprivation; Information seeking; Interest
• ISSN: 0092-6566; 1095-7251
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104164

•We examined the convergent-divergent validity of the interest/deprivation model of curiosity.•Both curiosity traits predicted their definitional epistemic experiences.•Curiosity-as-interest and curiosity-as-deprivation predict feeling curious/interest.•Additionally, curiosity-as-deprivation predict feeling frustrated/bothered.•Anticipatory affect mediated associations between traits and information seeking. The interest/deprivation model of trait curiosity contrasts curiosity as a feeling of interest versus a feeling of deprivation. In two studies, we explored (N = 324), then confirmed (N = 397) relations that curiosity-as-interest and curiosity-as-deprivation had with anticipatory affect and information seeking behaviour during a trivia task. We found that (1) curiosity-as-interest predicted feeling curious/interested, whereas curiosity-as-deprivation predicted feeling both curious/interested and frustrated/bothered, when anticipating trivia answers; (2) curiosity-as-interest was the more robust trait predictor of information seeking (i.e., paying a cost to view trivia answers), and (3) anticipatory affect mediated the relations that both curiosity traits had with information seeking. These findings suggest that both traits in the I/D model of curiosity predict their definitional epistemic experiences.