Name: 人的「好奇心」分兩種，你是哪一種？ (There Are Two Kinds of Curious)
Uploaded: 2025-10-16T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 8 min 40 s

Children are full of curiosity and wonder about every little thing around them.

小時候的我們對身邊的每件小事都充滿好奇和驚奇。

But somewhere along the line, a lot of us lose that childlike curiosity.

但不知道為什麼，我們很多人都漸漸失去了那份童年的好奇心。

進階形容詞比較級句型

Old people know the answers, so we're just not as curious as we used to be.

老人家知道答案了，所以我們不像以前那麼好奇了。

At least that's the conventional wisdom, and there are some studies that support it.

至少這是傳統智慧，也有一些研究支持這個說法。

But there's also some recent research that suggests older people

不過，最近也有一些研究顯示，

may be more curious than their younger counterparts,

年長者可能比年輕的對應者更好奇，

and that may help you maintain your brain as you age.

而且這或許能幫助你在年紀增長時維持大腦的活力。

Naturally, scientists are curious about the reasons for those mixed results.

當然，科學家們對於這些混雜結果的原因感到好奇。

As it turns out, we may have been thinking about curiosity all wrong.

結果發現，我們可能一直都對好奇心有錯誤的認知。

隨著年齡增長，你的優先事項會改變。

While you used to be motivated by the adrenaline of meeting new people and trying out a new bar,

以前你可能被認識新朋友和嘗試新酒吧的腎上腺素所驅動，

these days, you're more satisfied by a comfortable night in and a solid amount of sleep.

但現在你更滿足於舒適的夜晚和充足的睡眠。

It seems that you are focused on different things later in adulthood than you used to be,

看起來你在成年晚期關注的事物和以前不一樣了，

Studies have shown decreases in curiosity about other people, yourself,

研究顯示，從成年早期到晚期，人們對認識新朋友、認識自己

and new knowledge from early to late adulthood, plus less openness to new experiences.

以及學習新知識的好奇心會下降，對新經驗的開放度也會降低。

And for years, researchers have been trying to figure out why.

而多年來，研究人員一直在試圖找出原因。

One hypothesis hinges on the idea that when you are younger, you have a lot of time left before you die.

其中一個假說認為，當你年輕時，距離死亡還有很多時間。

seeking out new information and experiences that could prepare you for whatever might come up in those intervening years.

你會優先考慮，尋找新資訊和新經驗，為過渡時期可能發生的任何事情做好準備。

Then, as an older adult, you recognize that your time is limited,

然後，到了成年晚期，你會意識到時間有限，

so you prioritize what you are confident will make you happy and you avoid avoid unfamiliar situations.

所以你會優先考慮那些確定能讓你快樂的事物，並避開不熟悉的情況。

Another hypothesis is more about how your brain ages.

另一個假說則更多地與大腦老化有關。

When you explore new things that pique your curiosity, your neurons release more dopamine.

當你探索新事物、激發好奇心時，你的神經元會釋放更多多巴胺。

But as you age, your dopamine levels might start to decline.

但隨著年齡增長，你的多巴胺水準可能會開始下降。

Not only that, but they also have fewer places to bind

不僅如此，它們結合的空間也變少了，

and generally aren't as responsive to new things as they used to be.

而且對新事物的響應程度也不如以往。

All that evidence fits together to tell a simple story.

所有這些證據都指向一個簡單的說法。

當你感到好奇時，你會使用多巴胺，而

and your body's response to that chemical along with curiosity, decreases with age.

你的身體對這種化學物質和好奇心的反應，會隨著年齡增長而減弱。

But things are never that easily explained, especially with the brain,

但事情從來都不是那麼容易解釋，尤其是有關大腦的部分，

because you might not have a complete decrease in curiosity as you get older.

因為隨著年齡增長，你的好奇心不一定會完全減弱。

For example, more than 1 million people were surveyed to see where they land across the Big Five personality traits -

例如，超過一百萬人接受了調查，以瞭解他們在大五人格特質中的位置：

openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

開放性、盡責性、外向性、宜人性，以及神經質。

And the researchers who conducted that survey concluded that

進行這項調查的研究人員得出結論，

older people are more open to seek out new experiences,

which is great news because curiosity is really beneficial.

這真是個好消息，因為好奇心非常有益。

It can help you connect with people, boost your memory,

它可以幫助你與人連結、增強記憶力，

and is associated with greater physical and mental well-being.

It might even be associated with staying sharp in old age.

它甚至可能與年長者保持思緒清晰有關。

A small study from 2006 tested this among healthy 65 to 85 year olds.

2006年的一項小型研究，針對65到85歲的健康成年人進行了測試。

They were all given images on a computer screen to look at,

他們都在電腦螢幕上看到圖片，

and participants who spent more time looking at new images performed better on cognitive tasks

而花更多時間看新圖片的參與者，在認知任務上的表現，

than those who paid more attention to the stuff they did seen before.

優於那些更關注之前看過的內容的人。

So scientists think that there is a correlation between being curious and maintaining your youthful brain power.

所以科學家認為，好奇心和維持年輕的大腦活力之間，存在著關聯。

This might all come back to those brain chemicals.

這一切可能都回歸到那些大腦中的化學物質。

Many areas of the brain that stop working as well when you go through dementia

大腦中許多在失智時功能會下降的區域，

are in charge of stuff that's important for curiosity, like learning, memory and reward.

都負責著對好奇心很重要的事物，像是學習、記憶和獎勵。

And get this, you'll also find dopamine there.

而且你還會發現，這裡也有多巴胺。

So as you age, you might have less dopamine functionality,

所以隨著年齡增長，你的多巴胺功能可能會下降，

you might have dementia related damage to the parts of the brain where dopamine goes,

大腦中處理多巴胺的區域可能會因為失智而受損，

而且你可能會變得不那麼好奇。

But that doesn't line up with the other research suggesting that older people are more open to new experiences.

但這跟其他研究顯示年長者對新經驗更開放的說法並不一致。

A study published in 2025 helps to clear this all up.

2025 年發表的一項研究釐清了這一切。

But before I go into details about all of that, I got a quick ad that I need to show you.

但在我深入探討之前，有個廣告要先給大家看。

This SciShow video is supported by JMP, the Statistical Analysis software trusted by the largest pharmaceutical companies, consumer products companies and semiconductor companies in the world.

這支 SciShow 影片由 JMP 贊助，JMP 是全球最大製藥公司、消費品公司和半導體公司信賴的統計分析軟體。

JMP helps them manage unwieldy variables, improve scientific reproducibility and gain INS insight into their data.

JMP 協助他們管理複雜的變數，提升科學研究的可重複性，並深入瞭解他們的研究數據。

So many big companies trust JMP with their giant data sets because it works through the whole data analysis process.

許多大公司都信任 JMP 來處理他們龐大的數據集，因為它能涵蓋整個數據分析流程。

You can access your data from various sources, apply powerful statistics and use interactive visualization to share your discoveries all on the same platform.

你可以在同一個平臺上，從各種來源存取你的數據，套用強大的統計功能，並使用互動式視覺化來分享你的發現。

If you're a young professional who's taking it to the next level above being proficient in Excel, you can visit jmp.com scishow to reap the benefits of visual statistics for yourself and get a 30 day free free trial.

如果你是追求卓越的年輕專業人士，想在 Excel 的基礎上更上一層樓，可以到 jmp.com scishow 體驗視覺化統計的優勢，並獲得 30 天的免費試用。

Most of the studies I've mentioned so far in this video were snapshots of a single point in a lot of people's lives.

影片中到目前為止我提到的大多數研究，都只是截取人們生命中某個單一時點的快照。

Researchers look at that data and they draw conclusions about the average person.

研究人員會檢視這些數據，然後對一般人做出結論。

It's hard to do a short term study on a topic like aging.

要針對老化這種主題進行短期研究是很困難的。

You could end up in a chicken or egg situation where you don't have the evidence to know if being more curious is protective against cognitive decline or if having less cognitive decline lets someone maintain their curiosity.

你可能會陷入先有雞還是先有蛋的困境，也就是你沒有證據知道是好奇心比較強能預防認知衰退，還是認知衰退較少能讓人保持好奇心。

And that is where longitudinal STU studies come in.

Those are studies that take place over a longer period of time, usually throughout years of the participants lives.

這些研究會在較長的時間內進行，通常是貫穿參與者生命中的多年。

One longitudinal study published in 2013, found that retirees who sought out more cognitively challenging activities improved their scores in a test of memory, attention, language and other cognitive functions from one year to the next.

一項於 2013 年發表的研究發現，尋求更多認知挑戰性活動的退休人員，在記憶力、注意力、語言和其他認知功能測試中的分數，一年比一年進步。

So if you're more curious, it is associated with improving your brain function.

所以，如果你比較好奇，這就跟改善你的大腦功能有關聯。

And a different four year longitudinal study investigated associations with being less curious as you age.

而另一項為期四年的縱向研究，調查了隨著年齡增長而變得不那麼好奇的關聯性。

The researchers asked caregivers of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease if they showed signs of apathy, meaning they just weren't interested in stuff.

研究人員詢問了被診斷患有阿茲海默症的病患的照護者，他們是否出現了冷漠的跡象，這意味著他們對事物毫無興趣。

Patients who were described as more apathetic over time experienced more cognitive decline than their peers.

那些被描述為隨著時間推移變得更冷漠的病患，其認知能力下降的程度比他們的對應者更嚴重。

Now, this doesn't mean that curiosity specifically is protecting against cognitive decline, but

現在，這並不意味著好奇心本身能預防認知能力下降，但

it does mean that how curious you are can at least partially predict decline.

這確實意味著你的好奇心程度至少可以部分預測認知能力的下降。

it still doesn't clear up why Some research suggests you get more curious with age and other studies say less.

這仍然無法釐清為什麼有些研究顯示你會隨著年齡增長而變得更具好奇心，而其他研究卻說相反。

Part of the discrepancy in research findings may be due to different researchers measuring different things.

研究結果差異的部分原因，可能是因為不同的研究人員測量了不同的東西。

After all, there's more than one kind of curiosity a behavior can be state curiosity if it's happening right now in response to something you find interesting versus trait curiosity if it's more consistently a part of you.

畢竟，好奇心不只一種，行為可以是一種「狀態好奇心」，如果它正在發生，是因為你對某件有趣的事物產生了回應；另一種是「特質好奇心」，如果它更持續地是你的一部分。

Trait Curiosity is subscribing to a YouTube channel and watching all the cool SciShow videos that come out Monday through Friday.

特質好奇心就像訂閱一個 YouTube 頻道，並觀看週一到週五推出的所有很棒的 SciShow 影片。

Every week, State Curiosity is scrolling past a video about curiosity and aging and wondering what the link between those two is and watching said video to find out.

每週，狀態好奇心則是滑過一個關於好奇心和老化的影片，並想知道這兩者之間的關聯，然後觀看該影片來找出答案。

This trait versus state curiosity was investigated as it relates to aging in a 2025 study to measure Trait Curiosity.

這項關於特質與狀態好奇心的研究，在 2025 年的一項研究中被調查，用來衡量特質好奇心。

They prompted participants with statements like I spend hours on a problem because I can't rest without the answer.

他們用「我會花好幾個小時研究一個問題，因為我得不到答案就無法休息」這類陳述來引導參與者。

And for State Curiosity, they asked how curious people were to find out the answer to trivia questions like what was the first to give women the right to vote?

至於狀態好奇心，他們詢問人們對像是「哪個國家最先給予女性投票權？」這類冷知識答案的好奇程度。

The researchers found that for older participants, Trait curiosity, also known as their general tendency to seek out information, decreased, but

研究人員發現，對於年長的參與者，特質好奇心，也就是他們尋求資訊的普遍傾向，有所下降，但

their state curiosity, or interest in the answers to something specific, was higher.

他們的狀態好奇心，也就是對特定事物答案的興趣，卻更高。

For older participants, this may be related to that tendency of older people to focus their time and attention on things they are confident will be a good use of their time.

對於年長的參與者來說，這可能與年長者傾向將時間和注意力集中在他們確信能有效利用時間的事物上有關。

You're no longer as curious about everything, but

你不再對所有事情都充滿好奇，但

you're more curious about the things that are relevant to your interests and stuff you already engage with.

你對與你的興趣和已經在做的事情相關的事物，會更感興趣。

That's why the History Channel does so well.

這就是為什麼 History Channel 頻道這麼受歡迎。

Like your grandpa might not want to learn a bunch of new skills and hobbies in retirement, but

就像你的爺爺可能不想在退休後學習一堆新技能和培養新興趣，但

he may subscribe to a woodworking magazine, read woodworking books, watch woodworking YouTube videos, and

他可能會訂閱木工雜誌、閱讀木工書籍、觀看木工 YouTube 影片，並

practice new techniques for his little carved owl figurines.

練習雕刻貓頭鷹小擺飾的新技巧。

So you are not doomed to live a less curious life in your final decades.

所以你並不會註定在人生的最後幾十年過著不那麼好奇的生活。

In fact, your state curiosity might still be piqued when you hear about trivia questions like the one I mentioned from that 2025 study.

事實上，當你聽到我提到的 2025 年研究中的這類冷知識問題時，你的好奇心仍可能被激發。

And I'll save you from having to look it up.

Unless you did already, which we did in the studio immediately.

除非你已經查過了，就像我們在錄音室裡立刻做的那樣。

The first country to give women the right to vote was New Zealand.

第一個給予女性投票權的國家是紐西蘭。