80 Folks Ended Up Accidentally Answering The Million-Dollar Question, "What Happens If...?"

As children, everything fascinates us because it’s all so new. From trying to make sense of our own fingers as babies to conducting the weirdest experiments as we grow older, human curiosity is always alive. In fact, it is as natural for humans as breathing.

According to cognitive scientist and researcher Elizabeth Bonawitz, curiosity is innate in all humans — a sensation much like hunger or thirst. “Curiosity acts as a kind of filter you put over the world to help the mind decide what information to attend to,” she says. “It’s a physiological response that helps drive action and decision-making to support learning.” 

Experts at Verywell Mind explain that genes and environment influence curiosity, a trait that plays a vital role in neural development and learning. Also, it turns out that dopamine and novelty-seeking behavior are linked to curiosity, affecting our urge to explore. 

No wonder we constantly tinker with things, trying to understand everything about them. So next time your mind reels over some mystery, don’t hesitate to blame it on your genes.

Sometimes, this curiosity is so great in a few people that they feel the need to test the “what if…?” scenario. But it might also come with risk, and they might ignore it. Basically, our brain treats new information like a reward. It makes the potential damage seem like a small price to pay for the satisfaction of finally knowing the answer. In fact, this intrinsic motivation is so strong that it overrides common sense.   

However, it’s all thanks to their curiosity that we get to see these intriguing images. But what is it about these pictures that actually fascinates us? To understand that, we have to go back to our brain and something called “Predictive Processing.”

Research defines it as “the brain’s method of organizing and interpreting sensory information by continuously generating, updating, and refining predictions to minimize the mismatch between expected and received sensory inputs, thereby enhancing the precision of its internal representations. This process lets the brain adapt effectively to dynamic, complex environments.”

In simple terms, instead of waiting to see what happens, our brains constantly apply past experiences to predict what they expect to see or hear next. When what we see matches our prediction, our brain ignores the details to save energy. 

But when something unexpected happens, our brain detects a “prediction error.” That’s why it’s forced to stop and pay attention to understand what’s going on. So when our brain tries to minimize surprises and suddenly a “what happens if…?” photo pops up, it grabs our attention. Our brain suddenly starts working hard to make sense of the new information that it sees.

It’s almost like a cycle, isn’t it? Some people let curiosity override them and search for answers to the question, “What happens if…?” When they realize something strange, they post about it online. And finally, when we see the pictures, they trigger our curiosity as we try to make sense of how it happened. But, hey, curiosity is a good thing, so I couldn’t mind falling into this loop, staying in it, and discovering new things all the time.

Research shows that scientists have now been looking for ways to cultivate more curiosity in our lives, and even simple interventions could reap enormous benefits. Curiosity can boost our memory, which helps with learning. It can also increase our patience. 

Similarly profound effects appear in studies of creative problem solving, with signs that curiosity helps people build more exciting and original ideas. Lastly, curiosity can also support engagement and well-being.

Honestly, curiosity sounds like a helpful tool to have. Researchers claim it can bridge the gap between feeling stuck and living your best life. In fact, they offer 5 ways to become more curious:

1. Find what fascinates you.
2. Do things you don’t know how to do.
3. Ask questions.
4. Go to people, not Google.
5. Don’t allow boredom to become you.

Beyond those 5, looking at such interesting pictures can also make you more curious. Well, I hope this list proved entertaining and helpful in a way, dear Pandas. Which one of these bizarre pictures totally blew you away? We would love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to jot them in the comments below or just upvote your favorites.