Curiosity seen as motivation for information gain in open and neurotic individuals

Abstract: The  aim  of  the  current  study  was  to investigate  if  Openness  –  to  –  Experience  and  Neuroticism  personality  traits  are associated with curiosity. This will help us to estimate whether knowledge expansion is dependent on a person’s personality and which trait is more willing to invest time on learning.  The  experiment  consisted  of  two  different  sessions.  To estimate  curiosity, 40 subjects first performed a word-synonymy task, where Shannon’s (1948) entropy was estimated  and the result of which lead to the measurement  of uncertainty.  Then in a second session, participants had the option to request for feedback between a few alternative  options  at  a  cost  (time),  and  they  were  also  required  to  estimate  their satisfaction  about  the  answer  on  a  valence  rating  scale.  Finally, participants  were screened  for  personality  traits.  Neurotic  individuals  appeared  to  be  more  willing  in investing time on feedback request, in contrast to open individuals.