David Cooper

They say the smartest people ask the best questions, but what if that very skill, the ability to ask deep, complicated questions, actually hurts your academic scores in school?

There's a new piece of research that shows curiosity might be bad for your grades.

This is not good news to me, but I'm here with Tuval Raz, a cognitive psychologist and creativity researcher at the Technion Institute of Technology, who has studied just this.

Tuval, welcome to the show.

Look, we're told asking good questions is the hallmark of a curious mind.

Your study suggests that skill might hurt you on certain exams.

What is going on?

Now, let's zoom into what asking a good question really is.

You mentioned, what, creativity?

Is it showing any kind of curiosity?

Is it skepticism?

What actually constitutes a good question?

I'll take it, I'll take it.

Are good questions, complex questions, helpful for learning?

I'm not talking about helpful for getting good grades.

I'm talking I went to a course at a school, a university, and then I walked away from it feeling like I really learned something.

If I ask good questions, am I learning better?

I was hoping you were going to give me good news because I didn't get the best grades in undergrad.

In fact, I'm really good at undergrad because I spent five years at it instead of four, so I got more experience, which makes me better than everyone.

I did not get good grades.