Epistemic curiosity—the desire for knowledge—is typically thought to benefit learning. In four preregistered studies, we show that interest curiosity, a facet of epistemic curiosity characterized by joyful exploration, is indeed associated with traits and abilities that benefit learning. These include general knowledge, intellectual humility, and discernment of the quality of information. In contrast, deprivation curiosity, a facet motivated by uncertainty reduction, is associated with errors and confusion. Individuals high in deprivation curiosity claim familiarity with new information (Studies 1 & 3) and made-up concepts (Studies 1, 2 & 4). They find meaning in “bullshit” (Studies 3 & 4), believe disinformation (Study 4), and lack intellectually humility (Studies 1, 3 and 4). We theorize that deprivation curiosity is characterized by an indiscriminate openness to information.

认知好奇心——对知识的渴望——通常被认为有益于学习。在四项预先注册的研究中，我们表明，兴趣好奇心，即以快乐探索为特征的认知好奇心的一个方面，确实与有益于学习的特质和能力相关。这些包括一般知识、知识谦逊和对信息质量的辨别力。相比之下，剥夺好奇心是减少不确定性所激发的一个方面，与错误和混乱有关。具有高度剥夺好奇心的人声称熟悉新信息（研究 1 和 3）和虚构的概念（研究 1、2 和 4）。他们在“胡说八道”中找到意义（研究 3 和 4），相信虚假信息（研究 4），并且在智力上缺乏谦逊（研究 1、3 和 4）。