The Curiosity Curve

What is curiosity? And how does it shape the cultural values that govern the way in which organizations operate? Lab 201 partnered with Dr. Debra Clary in a research study to investigate the complex mechanisms of how curiosity shapes organizations, by developing and validating a novel tool to assess these values at a cultural and organizational level.

Curiosity as an individual psychological concept has been studied with rising popularity over the past few decades, with notable progress in a number of frameworks: of curiosity as a feeling of positive affect (Litman & Spielberger, 2003), curiosity as a feeling of deprivation (Litman & Jimerson, 2004), and curiosity as dimensions of exploration/diversive and absorptive/specific state-traits (Kashdan, Rose, & Fincham, 2004).

The focus of our research, in contrast, represents an extension of this existing work beyond individual states and traits, instead looking at the relationship between individuals and the cultural substrate to which these individuals belong. It became clear to us in the early stages of research that not only are cultural values distinct from the sum of individual traits, but also that these communal cultural values interact with each individual in various and complex ways, manifesting in the real world in such things as pressure to conform, cognitive dissonance, personal bias, etc.

In other words, simply measuring the values of the individuals of a group doesn't necessarily tell you what the group's values are. And the opposite is true as well. Measuring the cultural values of a group will not necessarily tell us the values of the individuals in the group. We can intuit this concept by imagining a hypothetical office setting where the hypothetical communal kitchen is always spotless, used dishes always washed, dried, and put neatly away. Even though the cultural values revolving around clean communal spaces would be obvious from looking at the state of this tidy office kitchen, we would still not be able to confidently extrapolate the cleanliness of the kitchens of the individual employees at home.

We designed and launched a research project, collecting and analyzing thousands of data points from hundreds of participants from across the country in order to more closely understand how curiosity works.

From additional preliminary data, we were also able to construct and validate a novel assessment tool designed to measure curiosity at the organizational level, comparing this new tool with existing assessment tools for individual assessment. This is the first study looking at the ways in which individual and organizational data is related, and our findings highlight the complex interplay between these entities. Over the course of this study, we built a system of stochastic machine learning models to uncover embedded relationships in our experimental data, designed a novel measurement tool validated with strong statistical properties, demonstrated convergent, divergent, and incremental validity over existing assessment tools, and developed a nomological framework of cultural curiosity to support our findings.

Culture, and the manifestation and effects of culture on individuals, is incredibly interesting and complex. The realization that the reach of organizational culture extends beyond a simple sum or average of individual values is key to investigating these complexities as they exist in the real world.

For the full study, analysis, and experimental results, feel free to reach out to us at hello@lab201.com.