How can we leverage scientific insights to promote human flourishing?
What makes us different from each other? And how can we shape our character to become the people we want to be? My research tackles these questions through an interdisciplinary lens, exploring the factors behind individual differences in personality—especially traits like curiosity, which are linked to numerous positive life outcomes. For instance, curious individuals tend to be happier, healthier, and even live longer. But why are some people naturally more curious than others? And can we leverage modern scientific insights to promote curiosity in our personality?
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A central goal of my research is to develop a neurobiologically grounded understanding of individual differences: what brain mechanisms shape the diverse personality traits we observe? Many core drives are rooted in the dopamine system, which helps determine whether we approach or avoid new or uncertain situations. Through a process called incentive salience assignment, the dopamine system transforms neutral sensory data into information that captures our attention and motivates action. Essentially, this makes specific details “pop,” signaling them as worth exploring.
This salience-driven prioritization is crucial in guiding attention and behavior, filtering the vast amounts of information we encounter so that only the most relevant pieces receive our attention or consideration. Given the influence of this process on what we pay attention to and are motivated by, it directly impacts how we think and what longer-term goals we pursue. Since personality can be understood as a set of distinct cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns, these salience processes may fundamentally shape the unique profiles we recognize as individual personalities.
For example, curiosity may involve a heightened sensitivity to assign salience to information, driving curious individuals to explore and seek out new insights. Over time, this shapes the types of experiences curious people pursue and behaviors they engage in. Creativity, on the other hand, could result from an atypical salience process, allowing unconventional or overlooked details to stand out and inspire novel connections during problem-solving. This in turn could lead to more general tendencies towards unconventionality, novelty, and innovation.
Our findings support these ideas: creative and curious individuals prioritize visual information differently (Gross et al., 2019, see Figure 1), are motivated by a wider range of real-world rewards (Gross, Elliott, Schooler, 2024), and find unique meaning in unconventional information. At the neural level, we can use EEG to see how creative brains respond to salient stimuli, as represented in Graphic 1. We found that creative brains responded more weakly to an “oddball” tone, suggesting a distinct way of processing information that may underlie creative thinking (Gross, Elliott, Schooler, 2024), see Figure 2. For a deeper dive on this theoretical model, explore our recent article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences (Gross & Schooler, 2024) or a popular version on Psyche.
In short, incentive salience not only determines what we focus on but also shapes our thinking and actions over time. These processes likely underpin key traits like curiosity, creativity, and openness, helping to explain why some people are naturally more inquisitive, creative, or receptive to new experiences.
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Personality traits like curiosity and openness are often seen as stable, but recent research reveals they can change based on context. My work examines these traits not only as lasting qualities but also as flexible states influenced by our surroundings. For instance, exposure to artistic films has been shown to boost outcomes related to openness—enhancing creativity, information-seeking, feelings of curiosity, humility, and a sense of openness to new experiences (Gross & Schooler, in press). These effects are especially pronounced for people who already score high in curiosity or openness, showing how the right context can bring out the best in our traits.
The implications of this work are exciting. If certain contexts can temporarily amplify traits like curiosity and openness, we may be able to design environments, experiences, and interventions that encourage personal growth and flourishing. Imagine spaces that actively cultivate creativity or programs that foster openness and resilience in individuals, helping people to become more adaptable and engaged. This work opens up new possibilities for enhancing education, mental health interventions, and even workplace environments by intentionally activating positive traits. Ultimately, it suggests that personality isn’t fixed—we can harness the power of context to unlock potential and promote well-being.
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In experimental psychological research, the ability to measure state-level variations in personality is essential, particularly for studies aiming to understand natural fluctuations in trait expression or experimental designs aiming to manipulate these states and observe their downstream effects. While trait measures of curiosity and creativity are well-established, tools for assessing momentary, fluctuating states—how curious or creatively inspired someone feels at a given moment—are notably lacking. State measures, like the State Adaptations of the Epistemic Curiosity Scale and the Creative Inspiration Scale below, aim to address this gap by capturing real-time, situational shifts in curiosity and creative inspiration. These tools are crucial for experimental research as they allow researchers to test how induced changes in curiosity or creativity influence learning, problem-solving, engagement, and other outcomes. By using state measures, researchers can better understand the dynamic nature of curiosity and creativity and their potential to drive immediate and meaningful behavior changes.
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Atypical Salience Theory of Creativity
Blitz Talk at the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, 2024