Childhood Curiosity Study

Principal Investigators: Dr. Niobe Way; Dr. Natasha Cabrera

Graduate Student: Rachel Taffe

Starting in early 2025, our team will begin a cross-cohort, three-year longitudinal study of interpersonal and intellectual curiosity among children in PreK through 3rd grade. Not only will this be the first longitudinal study of children’s interpersonal and intellectual curiosity, but it will be the first to explore how the content of children’s curiosity and frequency of curiosity’s expression change over time and are shaped by the classroom (e.g., teachers’ beliefs and practices; classroom climate) and home contexts (e.g., parents’ beliefs and practices). Our team will employ a mixed methods approach to investigate these questions, including intensive classroom observation, qualitative interviewing and surveys of teachers and parents, and standardized lab tasks for children.

Interpersonal Curiosity & Listening Among Middle School Students

Principal Investigators: Dr. Niobe Way; Dr. Jinjoo Han

Graduate Student: Rachel Taffe

Drawing on data from the Listening Project intervention study, we have examined and are continuing to explore interpersonal curiosity as it relates to a broad range of other social, emotional, and cognitive outcomes. Key findings from this work thus far include that interpersonal curiosity has several distinct dimensions among middle school students, and that these dimensions differentially relate to social emotional skills (i.e., empathy and active listening skills) and wellbeing indicators (i.e., depressive symptoms and friendship quality).

Interpersonal Curiosity, social emotional wellbeing, & Personal relationships among College Students

Principal Investigator: Dr. Niobe Way

Graduate Student: Rachel Taffe

Using data collected in a series of three studies—which employed survey, open-ended, and experimental elements—of nearly 1000 college students, we are conducting ongoing analyses to explore the following research questions, among others:

1. What questions do college students wish to ask and be asked by close others in their lives (i.e., friend, romantic partner, mother figure, and father figure), and why?

2. How does interpersonal curiosity relate to indicators of social emotional well-being (i.e.., loneliness, depressive symptoms, anxiety), among college students?

3. How does interpersonal curiosity among college students reflect, reinforce or disrupt sociocultural stereotypes?