An important concept we teach to businesses in our content marketing workshops that we first learned when working with broadcast media companies like the BBC, is to create ‘curiosity gap’ in your communication.

But what on earth is a curiosity gap?

A ‘curiosity gap’ is the intangible cognitive space between what the audience knows and what they want to know.  

A simple concept, yet difficult to create if your organisation lacks creative thinkers (improving cognitive diversity is a subject for another day!).

It's a concept used in journalism to capture and maintain a reader's or viewer's interest from the start to the finish – such as when an episode of Succession or Stranger Things ends on an unforeseen cliff hanger. The idea is to present enough information to spark some intrigue, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity completely, leaving them wanting to learn more. It’s a fine line between curiosity and being seen as ‘click-bait’, hence it needs high social intelligence to get the amount exactly right.

This can be done by posing a question, presenting a surprising fact (that should be well researched), or hinting at a piece of information that is yet to be revealed. The goal is to create a sense of anticipation and desire for more knowledge, prompting the audience to click, read, watch, or explore further to bridge the gap between what they know and what they're curious about.

The concept is closely tied to the psychology of information gaps and the basic human desire to seek out new information and experiences. Content creators leverage curiosity gaps as a strategy to increase engagement, clicks, views, and overall interest in their content.

Whilst we see a lot of AI-generated content springing up on LinkedIn and social media (when did everyone suddenly start using emojis in their messaging?), good content needs a human editor to get the amount just right, as the sophistication of these systems isn’t strong enough to understand the human psyche, cultures or specific demographics well enough to design a strong curiosity gap

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