3.10.1 Individual Differences and Interest

After discussing the relation of interest to attention we still face the question: What is it that makes an interesting object, or an idea interesting?

Why do we find some things naturally interesting while others are dull and commonplace?

Of course, everything is not equally interesting to all people.

Individual differences make clear the fact that a certain stimulus will call for a response in one particular person, quite unlike the response manifested in a person of different temperament and training.

But psychologists are agreed that in spite of these differences there are certain elements of interests that are generally and fundamentally appealing to human nature.

To know what it is that makes for interest is one of the prerequisites of good teaching.

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