About the Report
The 2018 State of Curiosity Report is a continuation of research carried out in the USA in 2015 – studies, which led to the release of our inaugural curiosity report in 2016. For our latest study, we surveyed 3,004 employees–from various business sectors–in Germany, China, and the USA about perceptions of curiosity in the workplace. Participants were asked to describe barriers and enhancers to curiosity encountered at work. Responses were compiled and evaluated via statistic software packages SPSS and STATA. Study elements–including associated Curiosity Indexes–were thoroughly ed and validated.
Our survey was divided into four curiosity categories, referred to throughout as ”dimensions”, which comprise:
Deprivation Sensitivity – recognizing knowledge gaps and pondering ideas to fill them
Joyous Exploration – the joy derived from learning and seeking out new knowledge
Distress Tolerance – the willingness to embrace new and uncertain situations at work
Openness to People's Ideas – valuing and purposely pursuing the perspectives of others
Our Curiosity Index Score was generated by accumulating all individual values into one, collective figure. Both employees and employers (companies) were assigned an index score. The data is differentiated by age, education level, location, and other variables to adequately represent the study’s large number of participants.
The use of a stylized brain–including its individual areas–to present the key findings of our report is intentional and does not represent an accurate, anatomical depiction of the human brain.