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## Persuasion Knob #3: Curiosity **One-sentence formulation:** *Curiosity pulls people forward by creating an information gap they feel compelled to close.* ### Adams’ core insight Scott Adams emphasizes that **curiosity is not passive interest—it is an active psychological tension**. When people sense that there is something they don’t know but *could* know, their attention locks on. Curiosity does not push. It **pulls**. Unlike fear, which compresses choice, curiosity expands engagement. People move voluntarily toward the source of intrigue. ### What curiosity actually is Curiosity arises from an **information gap**: - You know *something*. - You sense there is *more*. - The missing piece feels reachable. That gap produces mild discomfort—not fear, but *itch*. The mind wants closure. Adams points out that people will tolerate ambiguity, delay, and effort if curiosity is activated. ### Classic manifestations The obvious example is the **cliffhanger**: - End a chapter without resolution - End a season with unanswered questions - End a talk with “what happens next?” This is why serialized content works so reliably. The audience returns not out of loyalty, but unfinished business. But Adams notes curiosity is broader than cliffhangers. ### How curiosity is invoked in practice Common curiosity triggers include: - **Leading questions** “What if everything you’ve been told about this is wrong?” - **Implied knowledge** “Once you see this, you won’t unsee it.” - **Promised resolution** “This course answers one question most people never think to ask.” - **Partial disclosure** “There’s one detail everyone misses…” - **Open-ended mystery** “We still don’t know who was really responsible.” In each case, the persuader does not supply answers immediately. They **signal the existence of an answer**. ### Why curiosity is so effective Curiosity keeps people engaged without coercion. Under curiosity: - Resistance is low - Attention is sustained - Skepticism is postponed - People self-direct toward the source Adams’ key observation is that curiosity often outperforms persuasion. People convince *themselves* to continue. ### Curiosity does not require truth This is where the knob becomes ethically ambiguous. Curiosity can be used: - To explore real unknowns - To encourage learning - To sustain narrative interest But it can also be used to: - Plant doubt without evidence - Imply secrets without substance - Suggest wrongdoing without proof - Keep people engaged indefinitely without resolution Examples Adams alludes to: - “What are they hiding?” - “The real story hasn’t come out yet.” - “There’s more going on than you think.” Curiosity can destabilize belief as easily as it can build understanding. ### Curiosity as a behavioral guide Importantly, curiosity does not have to lead people *back to you*. It can be used to direct behavior toward: - Further investigation - Independent research - Suspended judgment - Ongoing attention This is why curiosity is powerful in education, storytelling, conspiracy, marketing, and politics alike. Once activated, curiosity runs on its own. ### Why recognizing this knob matters Curiosity feels virtuous—open-minded, inquisitive, intelligent. That makes it easy to underestimate how it is being steered. If you can recognize when curiosity is being deliberately invoked, you can ask: - Is this gap real or manufactured? - Is resolution possible or perpetually deferred? - Who benefits from my continued attention? Curiosity can lead to discovery. It can also lead to endless suspension. ### Why this knob follows fear Fear pushes people to act now. Curiosity keeps people watching longer. One compresses time. The other stretches it. Together, they explain much of modern media, politics, and narrative control. The next persuasion knob builds on this by manipulating perception not through mystery, but through *difference*. View quoted note →

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## Persuasion Knob #4: Novelty **One-sentence formulation:** *Novelty captures attention by breaking expectation; the brain privileges what is new before it evaluates what is true.* ### Adams’ core observation Scott Adams repeatedly notes that **the human brain is tuned to notice change, not importance**. What is familiar fades into the background, regardless of its value. What is new interrupts. Novelty does not persuade by argument. It persuades by *interrupting perception*. This makes it one of the fastest ways to gain attention in a crowded environment. ### What novelty actually is Novelty is not creativity for its own sake. It is **deviation from pattern**. The brain is constantly predicting what comes next. When a prediction fails, attention spikes automatically. That spike is novelty. Examples: - An unexpected statement - A surprising analogy - A reversal of tone - A contradiction of expectations - An unusual format or medium Novelty is the brain saying: *“Update required.”* ### Why novelty works Novelty forces a temporary suspension of filtering. Under normal conditions, people ignore most inputs. Novelty overrides that filter and buys a brief window of attention. During that window: - Messages are more likely to be noticed - Emotional tagging is stronger - Memory encoding improves Adams’ point is not that novelty convinces—it **opens the door** so something else can. ### Novelty vs. substance Novelty is often mistaken for value. This is why: - Sensational headlines outperform accurate ones - Outrage spreads faster than explanation - New ideas are overestimated on first exposure Adams cautions that novelty decays quickly. What worked yesterday becomes invisible tomorrow. This creates a trap: chasing novelty alone leads to escalation without depth. ### Ethical ambiguity Novelty can be used to: - Re-engage attention for worthwhile ideas - Make learning enjoyable - Break people out of stale thinking But it can also be used to: - Distract from substance - Mask weak arguments - Manufacture importance where none exists Because novelty is emotionally neutral at first, it is often paired with fear, curiosity, or repetition to lock in influence. ### Why novelty is unstable Adams emphasizes that novelty is **perishable**. Once the brain updates its model, the stimulus loses power. This is why constant novelty requires: - Escalation - Shock - Polarization Systems built entirely on novelty eventually collapse or mutate into something else. ### How novelty is used strategically Effective persuaders use novelty sparingly: - To regain attention - To reset engagement - To introduce reframes They do not rely on it continuously. Novelty is an entry tool, not a foundation. ### Why recognizing this knob matters When you feel sudden interest or excitement, it is worth asking: - Is this genuinely important? - Or is it merely different? Novelty often bypasses skepticism. Awareness restores balance. ### Why this knob follows curiosity Curiosity sustains attention over time. Novelty captures it in the moment. One pulls. The other interrupts. Together, they explain why new stories displace old ones regardless of resolution. The next persuasion knob exploits a different perceptual mechanism—comparison rather than change. View quoted note →