Strategies for the Curiosity‐Driven Museum Visitor

ABSTRACT Tracking studies show that museum visitors typically view only 20 to 40 percent of an exhibition. Current literature states that this partial use sub‐optimizes the educational benefit gained by the visitor, and that skilled visitors view an exhibition comprehensively and systematically. Contrary to that viewpoint, this paper argues that partial use of exhibitions is an intelligent and effective strategy for the visitor whose goal is to have curiosity piqued and satisfied. By using analytical approaches derived from “optimal foraging theory” in ecology, this paper demonstrates that the curiosity‐driven visitor seeks to maximize the Total Interest Value of his or her museum visit. Such visitors use a set of simple heuristics to find and focus attention only on exhibit elements with high interest value and low search costs. Their selective use of exhibit elements results in greater achievement of their own goals than would be gained by using the exhibition comprehensively.