Curiosity
Design Pattern
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We crave more when teased with a small bit of interesting information
Example
▲ Groupon.com plays on users curiosity to complete sign up by hinting the end result in the background.
Usage
- Use to drive people toward action
- Use to convert users into leads
In the card deck
Curiosity is one of the cards in the Persuasive Patterns card decks
Two decks, Conversions & Decisions and Habits & Engagement, of bite-size psychological insights presented in a manner easily referenced and used as a brainstorming tool.
Solution
- Reveal enough to arouse interest. Consider when, and what, can you hold back and reveal just enough to arouse interest so you can supply a way to take the next step.
- Do something unexpected. People will stick around long enough to figure out what is going on.
- Drip-feed information. Set up multiple posts that encourage engagement, such as joining an email list for a first look at a new product.
- Allow exploration. We get pleasure from recognizing and seeking out new knowledge and information, and the subsequent joy of learning and growing.
Rationale
Reveal just a tiny bit to arouse interest and create a knwledge gap. As humans, we are driven to seek the information missing to closes the knowledge gap. Tease users with a fragment of the whole picture and let them take action to reveal more. You can delay filling in the missing pieces for quite a long time, but be aware of the point where you start introducing too much discomfort.
Academic research on Curiosity has undergone 2 waves of intense activity. The first in the 1960s focused mainly on curiosity’s psychological underpinnings – a drive-based approach producing an unpleasant sensation (usually labeled arousal). The second in the 1970s and 1980s tried to measure curiosity across varius dimensions without producing a reliable and valid curiosity scale, but honing in on a useful definition.
1 Loewenstein, G. (1994). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), 75–98
2 Jirout, J. J. (2020). Supporting Early Scientific Thinking Through Curiosity. Frontiers in psychology.
3 The Curiosity Effect at Learning Loop
More examples of the Curiosity pattern
