Hey!

So there's something I've been noticing in my own behaviour.

When I'm on the train or bus or at a cafe and I hear half of a conversation it drives me crazy.

"Did you hear... yeah Matt said it's embargoed until next week... ...Alright alright I'm on my way to the airport..." So, why is that?

Now there's something about hearing a one-sided conversation like this that makes us intensely curious.

Well, this is actually called a halfalogue.

Halfalogues are a fascinating window to how our brains work - we have this desire to fill in the blanks.

We experience a sudden urge of curiosity when we feel a gap between what we know and what we want to know.

This is called the information gap.

When we get information but just a small part of it, we crave more.

But as we get more and more information, after a certain point, our curiosity starts to decline.

So where does this sudden desire for information even come from?

Well it turns out that curiosity is one of the hardest things for philosophers, psychologists or neuroscientists to explain.

There are hints that we come with a primal curiosity circuit in the brain, it's probably shared with many other animals.

In this circuit is an area called the caudate nucleus, it's involved in anticipating reward coming from more primal things, like food, sex and drugs, in form of tiny spikes of dopamine, which make you feel fantastic.

But researchers have also found when we're faced with a trivia question, we have a surge of activity in that area.

Perhaps that explains my addiction to Jeopardy?

But instead of giving you your well-deserved reward, halfalogues abuse this circuit by their incessant cliffhangers.

Good cliffhangers manipulate you by inducing a delightful sense of anticipation and joy.

But NOT getting the information you crave for can leave you frustrated and take your attention hostage.

Your brain is, unconsciously, constantly making predictions about what should happen next.

In the case of halfalogues, it's predicting to hear the response to what you just heard.

But if you never do, it's like an itch that doesn't get scratched.

Hearing halaflogues can ruin your daily commute, just like how unresolved cliffhangers can ruin a great TV show.

Because sources of incomplete information have such a stronghold on our attention, some think it might mean open workspaces are not the best idea for productivity.

But studies that have measured participants' performance on simple tasks in presences of halfalogues haven't been conclusive so far.

Halfalogues might be annoying, but the curiosity they invoke is often enjoyable and helpful if we ultimately get the answer.

In fact, curiosity can promote learning.

Studies have shown that the more curious you are, the higher the odds that you remember the answer you were waiting for.

Maybe all that a boring class needs is a few good cliffhangers.