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Motives underlying human curiosity

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We know that curiosity is a strong driver of behaviour, but we know relatively little about its underlying motives. A new study shows that human curiosity may be driven by diverse motives. While some individuals are primarily motivated to form accurate beliefs, others rather seek information that makes them feel good.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Lieke L. F. van Lieshout, Floris P. de Lange & Roshan Cools

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Lieke L. F. van Lieshout & Roshan Cools

Authors
  1. Lieke L. F. van Lieshout
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  2. Floris P. de Lange
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  3. Roshan Cools
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lieke L. F. van Lieshout.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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van Lieshout, L.L.F., de Lange, F.P. & Cools, R. Motives underlying human curiosity. Nat Hum Behav 3, 550–551 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0565-y

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