Ķvlog

Opinion Blog

Ask a Psychologist

Helping Students Thrive Now

Angela Duckworth and other behavioral-science experts offer advice to teachers based on scientific research. Read more from this blog.

Student Well-Being & Movement Opinion

How to Increase Curiosity—and Happiness to Boot

By Angela Duckworth — May 26, 2021 2 min read
Does curiosity make me happier?
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Why is curiosity useful?
helps you process information deeply and remember what you learn. It’s also correlated with happiness. Here’s something I wrote about the topic recently for as a :
“Cows don’t get cavities.”
𲹱?”
“Nope. They don’t. Surprising, right? They eat all day long. And obviously, they’re not brushing their teeth.”
Mark was getting excited now.
And so was I. It wasn’t that I had strong preexisting convictions about cows and cavities. But nonetheless, I leaned forward, eyes wide, eager to know more.
“Neither do horses,” Mark continued. “Unless you feed them sugar cubes, of course.”
Mark Wolff is the dean of Penn Dental Medicine. He has known for a long time that refined sugar is a massively important cause of cavities—much more important than I’d realized.
At dinner with my family that evening, I couldn’t wait to share my new fun . And after dinner (decaffeinated coffee, no sugar), I found myself on an hourslong “wild Google chase,” learning about how sugar feeds the bacteria that naturally live in our mouths, which leads the bacteria to multiply. They digest the sugar, producing acid as a waste product—and the acid erodes the enamel on our teeth.
What good is —the emotion that dilates our pupils and propels us to ask questions and pay special attention to the information we hunt down?
Recent suggests that consistent curiosity goes hand in hand with happiness. For 21 days, participants kept a daily diary in which they responded to several different measures of well-being and, in addition, two curiosity questions:
Today, I viewed challenging situations as an opportunity to grow and learn.
Everywhere I went today, I was out looking for new things or experiences.
On a scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (very), the average rating for these curiosity questions was about 3—quite a bit lower than I would have expected—but there was a lot of variability, both across days and between people.
It turns out that consistently high ratings on these curiosity questions were correlated with higher ratings of life satisfaction, flourishing relationships, feelings of competence, and physical exercise.
Of course, with a diary study like this one, it’s impossible to tell whether curiosity causes happiness or, in fact, happiness causes curiosity—or if some third variable encourages both curiosity and happiness. I suspect that, as with so much of life, all three possibilities have at least some truth.
For me, a day when I ask a lot of questions is a very good day. And the two questions in the diary study are a wonderful reminder of how I want to live my life.
Try kicking off tonight’s dinner conversation with this question: “Did you learn anything new today?” Be ready to go first with something you learned. And make sure everyone takes a turn. As Albert Einstein once observed: “The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

The opinions expressed in Ask a Psychologist: Helping Students Thrive Now are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
Unlocking Success for Struggling Adolescent Readers
The Science of Reading transformed K-3 literacy. Now it's time to extend that focus to students in grades 6 through 12.
Content provided by 
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
Climb: A New Framework for Career Readiness in the Age of AI
Discover practical strategies to redefine career readiness in K–12 and move beyond credentials to develop true capability and character.
Content provided by 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Student Well-Being & Movement School Counselors’ Jobs Are Misunderstood. Why It Matters
New report examines the challenges school counselors are facing and how to address them.
4 min read
School counselor Laurinda Culpepper takes down student's work on a bulletin board at Walnut Grove Elementary School, on May 13, 2020, in Olathe, Kan. Teachers were gathering belongings and classwork of students students so they could be picked up by parents the following week. The school was closed on March 13 and all Kansas schools were eventually ordered shut for the remainder of the school year to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
School counselor Laurinda Culpepper takes down students' work on a bulletin board at Walnut Grove Elementary School, on May 13, 2020, in Olathe, Kan. According to the American School Counselor Association’s State of the Profession 2025 report, many people who do not work in schools do not understand the role and value counselors have for school communities.
Charlie Riedel/AP
Student Well-Being & Movement Parents and Kids Feel Shut Out of Policymaking. What Schools Should Know
New survey reveals parents and kids want more voice in government decisions.
4 min read
Students from Columbus, Ohio, wait outside a barrier as U.S. Capitol Police watch over the East Plaza where congressional leaders will have a news conferences on the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, on Oct. 15, 2025.
Students from Columbus, Ohio, wait outside a barrier at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, where congressional leaders were having a news conference about the federal government shutdown on Oct. 15, 2025. A new survey shows students want more of a voice in shaping government decisions.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Student Well-Being & Movement Jury Finds Meta Platforms Harm Children. Why School Districts Are Eyeing This Verdict
A trial scheduled for this summer pits school districts against social media companies.
6 min read
Attorneys representing the state and those representing meta speak following the verdict where the jury found Meta willfully violated New Mexico's consumer protection laws, Tuesday, March 24, 2026 , in Santa Fe, N.M.
Attorneys representing New Mexico and those working for Meta talk following a verdict that found the social media company willfully violated New Mexico's consumer protection laws, on March 24, 2026, in Santa Fe, N.M. Schools have been paying increasing attention to how the use of social media can harm students.
Nathan Burton/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP, Pool
Student Well-Being & Movement Teachers Keep the Lessons of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' Alive in the Classroom
Teachers say Fred Rogers' work has informed how they weave together academic and SEL lessons.
4 min read
This June 8, 1993 file photo shows Fred Rogers during a rehearsal for a segment of his television program Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood in Pittsburgh.
Fred Rogers rehearses a segment of his television program "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" in Pittsburgh in this June 8, 1993 file photo.
Gene J. Puskar/AP