Exploring perceptions of curiosity in older age: A mixed methods approach

Curiosity is a ubiquitous drive linked to healthy aging. However, findings on what happens to curiosity with age are inconsistent. While trait accounts indicate an age-related decrease, state accounts suggest that aging is associated with increased or comparable curiosity. A question then becomes whether older adults expect curiosity to decline with age. Accordingly, we measured perceptions of how curiosity changes with age, both generally and across distinct six curiosity dimensions, also investigating whether age differences were present. Younger (n = 75) and older (n = 80) adults completed questionnaires describing their own curiosity, as well as adapted questionnaires describing that of older adults. Participants also responded to an open-ended question to gauge their perceptions of how curiosity changes with age. We employed a mixed methods approach, using qualitative methods to analyze responses to an open-ended question, and quantitative methods to analyze questionnaire data and age differences in qualitative code endorsement. Older adults exhibited higher joyous exploration and stress tolerance than younger adults, and comparable deprivation sensitivity. Younger adults showed relatively higher levels of social curiosity, thrill seeking, and intrapersonal curiosity. Both younger and older adults reported higher curiosity in their self-ratings than in their ratings of older adults across nearly all measured dimensions. Finally, while younger adults predicted that curiosity declines with age, older adults suggested the opposite-that curiosity increases with age. We show that, contrary to previous literature, age differences are not present across all dimensions of curiosity. Moreover, we demonstrate that perceptions of how curiosity changes with age differ between younger and older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).