Coming to the end of season 3, we have discussed so many questions that came to our minds. Listening to these questions, Utsuka and Jigyasa’s friends, Avishka and Tavi, from Delhi Public School, Secunderabad, ironically asked “why do we ask so many questions?”. This question made us all think about human nature and how we are always curious to know more!

In the last episode of season 03 of IndiaAsksWhy, we look at the importance of curiosity and the different types of curiosity. We learn that curiosity probably evolved as a survival mechanism in animals. The inquisitive group also spoke to a curiosity researcher, Prof. Jaison Manjaly, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IITGN), to understand how one could study human curiosity and its nature in the lab!

We’re sure this conversation between the curious group would have made you curious, too. You can send your follow-up questions on our website, and we’ll pick them up :)

Please write to indiaaskswhy@gmail.com if you'd like your school to be involved with IndiaAsksWhy.

Illustration

References

• Byrne, Richard W. “Animal Curiosity.” Current Biology, vol. 23, no. 11, June 2013, pp. R469–R470, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.02.058. Accessed 9 Dec. 2019.
• Kidd, Celeste, and Benjamin Y. Hayden. “The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity.” Neuron, vol. 88, no. 3, Nov. 2015, pp. 449–460, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4635443/, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.010.
• Shin, Dajung Diane, and Sung-il Kim. “Homo Curious: Curious or Interested?” Educational Psychology Review, vol. 31, no. 4, 29 July 2019, pp. 853–874, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09497-x.
• “The “Why” behind Asking Why: The Science of Curiosity.” Knowledge at Wharton, 27 Aug. 2017, knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/podcast/knowledge-at-wharton-podcast/makes-us-curious/.
• “Why Are We so Curious?” Wonder Newsroom, www.blog.askwonder.com/blog/why-are-humans-so-curious. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.

Credits

• Hosts: Shweata N. Hegde and Ruchi Manglunia
• Guest scientist: Prof. Jaison Manjaly
• Students: Tanvi and Avishkaa from Delhi Public School, Secunderabad
• Audio Editor: Shweata N. Hegde
• Episode cover: Asif Khan
• Transcriber: Khushi Goel
• Poster: Mrunal Kulkarni