Making the case for curiosity in sport

Background: Curiosity is a crucial factor for promoting development and learning in various performance-focussed domains including education and business (Lievens et al., 2022). Yet, no systematic research or applied interventions exist on the role curiosity plays in performance sport.

Purpose: Drawing on existing knowledge from the psychological, pedagogical, and organizational literature, in this talk we will introduce curiosity as a construct of interest to sport scholars and practitioners.

Talk content: The presentation will be organized into four parts: (1) a brief overview of the work conceptualizing curiosity, (2) considerations on how curiosity is inhibited in high-performance sport contexts, (3) suggestions of the value of curiosity in sport, and (4) considerations for applied sport psychologists when promoting curiosity.

Conclusions: Curiosity has the potential to act as a strength for those involved in high-performance sport through facilitating learning and helping to develop social relationships. Given the absence of sport-based work on curiosity, we encourage sport psychology researchers and practitioners to critically consider the role curiosity may have in these settings.