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Curious children gather around photographer Toni Frissell, looking at her camera

Curiosity (from Latin curiosus "careful, diligent, curious," akin to cura "care") is an emotion related to natural inquisitive behavior such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human and many animal species. The term can also be used to denote the behavior itself being caused by the emotion of curiosity. As this emotion represents a drive to know new things, curiosity is a major driving forces behind scientific research and other disciplines of human study.

Causes[link]

Children peer over shoulders to see what their friends are reading.

Although many living beings have an innate capability of curiosity, it should not be categorized as an instinct because it is not a fixed action pattern; rather it is an innate basic emotion because while curiosity can be expressed in many ways, the expression of an instinct is typically more fixed and less flexible. Curiosity is common to human beings at all ages from infancy^[1] through adulthood,^[2] and is easy to observe in many other animal species. These include apes, cats, rodents,^[3] fish, reptiles, and insects; as well as many others.^{[citation needed]} Many aspects of exploration are shared among all beings, as all known terrestrial beings share similar aspects: limited size and a need to seek out food sources.^[vague]

In fact, in its development as wonder or admiration, it is generally curiosity that makes a human being want to become an expert in a field of knowledge.^{[citation needed]} Though humans are sometimes considered particularly curious, they sometimes seem to miss the obvious when compared to other animals. What seems to happen is that human curiosity about curiosity itself (i.e. meta-curiosity or meta-interest), combined with the ability to think in an abstract way, leads to mimesis, fantasy and imagination - eventually leading to an especially human way of thinking ("human reason"), which is abstract and self-aware, or conscious.^{[citation needed]}

Brain[link]

The degree to which a person says that they have curiosity about trivia questions links to activity both in the Broca's area in their left inferior frontal gyrus and in the putamen in their basal ganglia. This suggests that people experiencing curiosity activate not only parts of their brain that comprehend and anticipate information, but also those parts in which such information acts as a secondary reinforcer or reward. Curiosity also increases activity in memory areas such as the hippocampus when subjects guess trivia questions incorrectly - this suggests that it might act to enhance a person's long-term memory for surprising new information. Such activation linked to curiosity predicted better recall of surprising answers one or two weeks later.^[4]

Dopamine receptors in part of the hippocampus called the dentate gyrus contribute to the generation of a spontaneous exploratory behavior in mice, that may be akin to curiosity in humans.^[5] These receptors, and the protein NCS-1 that regulates their expression,^[5][6] also play important roles in plasticity and learning and therefore may represent a molecular link between intelligence and curiosity.^[7]

Morbid curiosity[link]

A crowd mills around the site of a car accident in Czechoslovakia in 1980.

A morbid curiosity is an example of addictive curiosity, the object of which is death, violence, or any other event that may hurt you physically or emotionally (see also: snuff film), the addictive emotion being explainable by meta-emotions exercising pressure on the spontaneous curiosity itself. According to Aristotle, in his Poetics we even "enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose sight is painful to us." (This aspect of our nature is often referred to as the 'Car Crash Syndrome' or 'Trainwreck Syndrome', derived from the notorious supposed inability of passersby to ignore such accidents.)

See also[link]

Look up curiosity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Emotion
• Interest (emotion)
• Play (activity)
• Broaden-and-build

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Curiosity and Exploration. Susan Edelman (1997) http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/students/explore.htm

v t e Emotions (list) Emotions Adoration Affection Agony Awe Amusement Anger Anguish Annoyance Anxiety Arousal Attraction Caring Compassion Contempt Contentment Defeat Dejection Depression Desire Despair Disappointment Disgust Ecstasy Embarrassment Empathy Enthrallment Enthusiasm Envy Euphoria Excitement Fear Frustration Grief Guilt Happiness Hatred Homesickness Hope Horror Hostility Humiliation Hysteria Infatuation Insecurity Insult Interest Irritation Isolation Jealousy Loneliness Longing Love Lust Melancholy Neglect Optimism Panic Passion Pity Pleasure Pride Rage Regret Rejection Remorse Resentment Sadness Sentimentality Shame Shock Sorrow Spite Suffering Surprise Sympathy Tenseness Thrill Revenge Wonder Worry Diligence Zest Worldviews Compatibilism Existentialism Fatalism Incompatibilism Metaphysics Nihilism Optimism Pessimism Reclusion Social justice Weltschmerz Source: Parrott, W. (2001), Emotions in Social Psychology, Psychology Press, Philadelphia.

Carly Rae Jepsen
Jepsen performing on Canada Day in 2010
Background information
Born	(1985-11-21) November 21, 1985 (age 26) Mission, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Pop, pop rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2007–present
Labels	604 (2008–present) Schoolboy/Interscope (2012–present)
Website	carlyraemusic.com

Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian recording artist and singer-songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. In 2007, she placed third in the fifth season of Canadian Idol, and was a part of the Canadian Idol Top 3 concert tour.^[1]

Shortly after competing on Idol, she signed to Fontana and MapleMusic, and released her debut album, Tug of War, on September 30, 2008. Three years later, she released a new single, entitled "Call Me Maybe", which was released by 604 Records, and was followed by the release of her debut extended play, Curiosity, on February 14, 2012. "Call Me Maybe" was met with much success, reaching the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching the number 1 spot on the Canadian Hot 100. The single also went to number 1 in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Jepsen signed with Interscope Records in 2012.

Life and career[link]

Jepsen attended Heritage Park Secondary School in Mission, British Columbia and has since performed there post-graduation. She later attended the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, BC before auditioning for Canadian Idol. After completing the Canadian Idol tour, Jepsen retreated to B.C. to focus on writing, recording and completing her band. Her demos attracted attention and she was eventually signed a joint management deal with Simkin Artist Management and Dexter Entertainment. A deal with Fontana/Maple Music quickly followed, leading Jepsen into the studio with producer/writer Ryan Stewart.^[2]

[edit] 2008–11: Tug of War

On June 16, 2008, Jepsen released her debut single and another single, a cover of John Denver's song "Sunshine On My Shoulders". It is the only cover song on her debut album.^[3] On July 21, 2008, Jepsen added two new songs from the album to her MySpace page: "Bucket" and "Heavy Lifting". In August 2008, Jepsen's MySpace page announced that the album's title would be Tug of War, and it was released on September 30, 2008. The page also mentioned two more songs that were included on the album: "Tug of War" and "Sweet Talker". The former was released as a single on iTunes on September 16, 2008, and has been receiving radio airplay on various stations across Canada. She performed the latter as her Canadian Idol audition.^[4]
A music video for "Tug of War" was released in January 2009. "Bucket", her second single, was released in May 2009, and the video for "Sour Candy", a duet with Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench who has also help produce some of her songs including Call Me Maybe, has also been released. All of Jepsen's music videos have been directed by Ben Knechtel. In spring 2009, she toured western Canada with Marianas Trench and Shiloh.^[5] She then went on a cross-Canada tour with Marianas Trench, The New Cities and Mission District.

[edit] 2012–present: Curiosity

Jepsen's second album Curiosity was released on February 14, 2012. It was produced by Ryan Stewart and Kevin James Maher produced the track "Dear Julien". On the same day as the release, Justin Bieber made the announcement on the MuchMusic program New Music Live that Jepsen has been signed to Schoolboy Records, the label run by Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun.^[6] The lead single, "Call Me Maybe" (which gained notoriety after "Primetime" Sam Roberts played the track during "After Opie and Anthony Live" on SiriusXM Satellite Radio) is from her second studio album Curiosity was released on September 21, 2011 and was produced by Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench and co-written by Jepsen, Ramsay and Tavish Crowe. "Call Me Maybe" is the first song by a Canadian artist to reach the top of the digital chart since Justin Bieber's “Baby” in January 2010. It is also only the 11th song by a Canadian artist to reach No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital download sales in 2005. The song has also peaked at #1 on Billboard's Canadian Hot 100, being the 4th Canadian artist to do so, after Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend", Nikki Yanofsky's "I Believe", and the Young Artists for Haiti version of "Wavin' Flag", originally by Canadian rapper K'naan.^[7] Jepsen is currently touring on the Shout it Out World Tour. She is the opening act for the pop-rock trio Hanson. In February 2012, Jepsen visited Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun in Los Angeles, California, where she subsequently signed to Schoolboy Records and Interscope. Her music will still be distributed by 604 Records in Canada. On March 23, 2012, Jepsen made her first American television debut on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, performing "Call Me Maybe" (with Jared Manierka on keys), later joined by Justin Bieber. Carly was also the first Canadian Idol contestant to enter the UK charts, when Call Me Maybe debuted at #1. Carly played at Citywalk at Universal Studios on April 14 2012. 400 people who paid $5 were allowed to meet with the singer and get CDs autographed by her.

Jepsen, 26, has been criticized in the press for dressing "too young" for her age in an effort to appeal to the pre-teen demographic.^[8][9]

On May 20th, 2012 Jepsen performed "Call Me Maybe" at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. On May 22th, 2012 she performed "Tug of War", "Curiosity", and "Call Me Maybe" at the first Q102 Springle Ball concert.

[edit] Canadian Idol performances

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Tug of War (2008)

Extended plays[link]

• Curiosity (2012)

Tours[link]

Opening act

• Justin Bieber – Believe Tour (North American dates) (2012)

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Carly Rae Jepsen on Twitter
• Carly Rae Jepsen on Myspace
• "Primetime" Sam Roberts