Updated 3 November 2026
How curious am I?
IPIP curiosity scale, 10 items, 2 minutes
Curiosity is finding the world interesting: being drawn to many activities, rarely bored, and keen to hear about places and ideas you do not know. These ten statements are the public-domain IPIP scale for the curiosity strength.
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0 of 10 answered. Describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future. Describe yourself as you honestly see yourself, in relation to other people you know of the same sex as you are, and roughly your same age.
Your results
Your answers and results are stored only in this browser, on this device. Nothing is sent to us. A share link carries your scores in the link itself.
Understanding your scores
Curiosity
High. People who score high say they find the world a very interesting place, are never bored, are excited by many different activities and love to hear about other countries and cultures. In daily life that shows as wide reading, questions, new hobbies that are actually taken up, and an easy time on long journeys. Curiosity is a strength that overlaps with openness to experience; it is interest, not intelligence.
Low. People who score low say they are not all that curious about the world, have few interests and find it difficult to entertain themselves. In daily life that shows as settled routines, a small number of deep interests rather than many shallow ones, and little appetite for novelty for its own sake. It is not a deficit: depth and focus are what low scorers often have instead, and many are expert in the few things they care about.
How reliable is this test
Internal consistency (coefficient alpha) per scale, as published:
| Scale | Published |
|---|---|
| Curiosity | 0.78 |
Coefficient alpha as given on the key page, https://ipip.ori.org/newVIAKey.htm, accessed 3 November 2026.
No published norms exist for this instrument, so the results show raw scores against the possible range and no percentiles.
The IPIP key page gives coefficient alpha of .78 for this scale and no test-retest figure. Personality scores are fairly stable over weeks; a change of a few points between attempts is usual.
Limits worth knowing: ten items, self-reported, with no published norm sample for the scale on its own. Curiosity overlaps with openness to experience; the Big Five tests measure that broader trait against norms.
Guides that cover this
Questions people ask
Is curiosity the same as openness to experience?
They overlap. Openness is the broad Big Five trait covering imagination, art, feelings, variety and ideas; curiosity is the narrower appetite for finding things interesting. The Big Five tests measure openness against norms.
Does curiosity change with age?
Openness, the broad trait it belongs to, rises in young adulthood and falls a little in old age on average. No study specific to this ten-item scale is cited on the key page.
Why is there no percentile on this test?
No norm sample has been published for this scale on its own, and the site never estimates or invents norms. Your marker is drawn against the possible range instead, and the page says so. The Big Five tests do have published norms.
Is a high or low score better?
Neither. Each end has strengths and costs, and the research describes tendencies across large groups, not what any one person will do. The site never colours scores as good or bad.
Where do my answers go?
Nowhere. The test is scored in your browser and the result is kept only on this device. If you choose to share a link, your scores are inside the link itself and nothing is sent to this site.
Sources and licence
Instrument: Curiosity. IPIP scales measuring constructs similar to those in the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004), International Personality Item Pool.
Scoring key: https://ipip.ori.org/newVIAKey.htm, checked 2026-11-03.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm Credit: International Personality Item Pool, https://ipip.ori.org/.