An untapped potential: Curiosity in medical school

Abstract

Background

There seems to be a common perception among medical educators that curiosity is untapped or even subjugated in medical education. This review aims to summarize research on curiosity across the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and education and report its potential to advance medical education.

Methods

For this narrative review multiple online libraries were searched using variations of the terms curiosity and school/education/learning. Additional studies were reviewed using the reference lists of included studies, and all studies were assessed for quality and relevance.

Results

This review of previous research on curiosity shows that curiosity can significantly impact characteristics relevant to medical education, particularly mental health and learning. In addition, the authors outline how curiosity is linked to other epistemic emotions such as anxiety, novelty, surprise, and uncertainty. Finally, an epistemic-emotion-framework (EEF) is proposed to help educators encourage curiosity in medical students.

Conclusion

By drawing from other research fields, medical educators can learn valuable lessons about the importance of curiosity and how to influence it. This review provides an overview of current research and a framework for how the potential of curiosity can be harnessed to play an important role in students’ medical education.

Keywords:

• Narrative review
• curiosity
• medical school
• medical students
• epistemic emotions

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. This work has not had any external funding.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article. Dr. Till Johannes Bugaj was funded by the Physician-Scientist program of the Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine.

Notes on contributors

Tim Alexander Schwarz

Tim Alexander Schwarz, is a doctoral student at the Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics at the University of Heidelberg Medical Hospital. He finished his medical studies at the University of Heidelberg in 2022.

Christoph Nikendei

Christoph Nikendei, MD, MME is Professor for General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics at the University Hospital Heidelberg. He was honored with AMEÉs 2008 Miriam Friedman Ben-David Award.

Anna Cranz

Anna Cranz, is a clinical psychologist at the Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics at the University of Heidelberg Medical Hospital.

Hans-Christoph Friederich

Hans-Christoph Friederich, MD is Professor for General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics and head of the Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics at the University of Heidelberg Medical Hospital.

Till Johannes Bugaj

Till Johannes Bugaj, MD is an attending physician at the Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics at the University of Heidelberg Medical Hospital.