“Curiosity is straight from the human spirit.” ~ Rebecca Czarniecki

Listen to Choose to be Curious #68: The Courtesy of Curiosity, with Rebecca Czarniecki

Perhaps the most unsettling thing I found in my research for this episode was an article that ran in The Washington Post in February 2016 exploring research done by Matthew MacWilliams, a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He polled Republicans on child-rearing, asking them to select which traits were more important in children. One of the juxtapositions was “curiosity or good manners.”

Spoiler Alert: parenting style was the best predictor of support for Donald Trump. One can imagine where curiosity fell in that spectrum.

I can’t be the only one who weighs whether my questions are (im)polite and, then, whether and how to ask them anyway. This episode begins to get at the balancing act we all perform.

Rebecca and I tried to get our hands around the slippery edges of curiosity as a social lubricant…..which brought back some of the insights shared by Dr. Megan Price of the George Mason School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, when she and I talked about the critical role curiosity plays in our efforts to get past the stuck places …

Learn more about Tea With Mrs. B. 

More about George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis & Resolution.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Lick Stick” by The Nursery from Blue Dot Sessions.

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