Curiosity gaps can BACKFIRE when teasers are too vague/abstract — information-seeking drops (Scientific Reports 2024; OBHDP 2023 frustration finding)

Claim: Curiosity gaps can backfire: when a teaser is too vague/abstract, information-seeking drops (Scientific Reports 2024, "When curiosity gaps backfire"). Information gaps also produce frustration, not just pleasant curiosity, in some contexts (e.g., workplace study, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2023).

Source: Scientific Reports 2024; OBHDP 2023.

Confidence: Verified (limit / boundary condition).

Why this matters for Candid: Counters the over-application of curiosity-gap copywriting (the "you won't believe what happens next" school). Tool framing must be concrete enough that the user pictures a satisfying answer at the other end. Pair with R1 — Design the tool's opening question for the curiosity inverted-U: ANSWERABLE-but-UNKNOWN; do not go too vague (backfire) or too obvious (no gap).