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Well, here’s a somewhat depressing finding: According to a 2025 study by a group of psychologists, the older we get, the less curious we become. The researchers studied more than 1,200 adults across a wide age range (20 to 84 years old) for five months and realized that the basic desire to figure things out naturally fades as people grow older. You might blame social media—especially too much screen time or doomscrolling—but that alone is not responsible for the change.
The fact is curiosity is very uncomfortable. It makes people feel vulnerable, and to be a curious person, you have to be okay with that messy space of being clueless for a while. Most people hate the feeling of not knowing, so to protect us from it, the brain relies on a set of safe, go-to phrases that we all use to get away from the discomfort.
You might have used one of these today:
“It is what it is.”
“I’ve seen all this before.”
“I don’t know, it just is.”
“Nothing surprises me anymore.”
“This is just how I am.”
Those sentences may sound like they’re coming from someone really wise, who has been there, done that. But they also lack the spark of curiosity.
Research shows that having little curiosity or apathy is actually a very comfortable experience for your brain because it requires less brain activity. It’s easier for your brain to recognize a pattern, match it, put a label on it, and just move on. Plus, your brain doesn’t need to expend a lot of mental energy to do that.
Given today’s constant stimuli, we’re often already drained at the beginning of the day—which means curiosity hardly even has a chance to show up. It doesn’t disappear dramatically, but it fades away and you don’t even realize it’s gone.
When curiosity vanishes, a feeling of indifference arises. It’s hard to notice, though, because things can look entirely functional from outside but feel completely empty inside.
So, how do you fix it? The good news is that curiosity isn't a fixed personality trait. It’s a skill you can trigger on purpose.
Here are three practices that can sharpen your “curiosity” and make it stronger:
1. Go on a 15-minute “A.W.E. walk”
Walk without negative distractions—such as listening and/or reading the news, being on the phone, or dwelling on an argument—and bring your attention to the environment around you.
The instructions for an awe walk are simple: A: admire, W: wait, E: exhale
You might just want to gaze at the beautiful sunset, or focus on the strange way shadows hit a building you pass every day. You could find a tree whose buds are just beginning to open, and center your attention on the leaves—maybe you’ll notice the pale, almost luminous green that only exists for a few days each year. Stop to look, smell, and listen. Breathe in that space. Notice how you feel. You may feel hopeful, quietly energized, or perhaps even a little moved by the slow-but-unstoppable return of life. Focus on those feelings.
2. Ask a loved one a question you don’t know the answer to
Our brains wake up when we find something new and fresh. You probably see the exact same people every week, having variations of the exact same conversations. We label this “comfort,” but in reality, it’s starving our curiosity.
Think about your inner circle: your partner, your best friend, a sibling, or the coworker who always joins you for a lunch run. When was the last time you asked them a question that you didn’t already know the answer to?
Familiarity is not the same thing as understanding. You might know your partner’s coffee order, but that doesn’t mean you know who they are today, right now, after everything they've experienced. Choose one person and ask them something genuine. Ask what made them completely flip their perspective on an ingrained belief, or what they think about when they are alone.
The important part is to carefully listen to what they say. Resist the feeling to inject your own matching anecdote or response in your head while they are talking. Let their answer surprise you.
3. Allow yourself to keep wondering
This is the easiest change you can make. When you find yourself using a conversation-ending phrase today, don’t punish yourself. Just add a couple of words onto the end of it:
“It is what it is . . . I wonder why.”
“I’ve seen this before . . . I wonder what’s different this time.”
“This is just how I am . . . I wonder if that’s actually true.”
“Nothing surprises me anymore . . . I wonder what I stopped paying attention to.”
You don’t need to journal about it or meditate on it. Saying “I wonder” acts as a small wedge that prevents your brain from slamming the door of curiosity shut.
A Final Thought
Even though our baseline curiosity declines as we age, there is a silver lining worth mentioning: A second kind of curiosity—the momentary spark you feel when something specific catches your attention (the researchers call it state curiosity—actually increases as we get older.
So hold onto the fact that you haven’t lost the capacity to wonder, you may have simply fallen out of the habit of doing it. Tomorrow will probably be another ordinary day, but you still get to decide whether you leave the door open to curiosity so you can go chase some sparks.
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