Curiosity: the most underrated intercultural competence

Curiosity audio recording

6:32

When people think about intercultural competence, they often mention knowledge, empathy, communication skills, or cultural awareness. All are important. Yet there is another quality that receives far less attention, while perhaps making the greatest difference of all: curiosity.

Not the curiosity that satisfies itself with collecting facts about other cultures, but the kind that remains genuinely interested in how another person experiences the world. More importantly, it is the curiosity to examine our own way of seeing that world.

Most of us assume that we see reality as it is. In fact, we see it through a cultural lens that has been shaped over decades by our family, education, society, and history. Because this lens feels normal, we rarely notice it. Each of us has a cultural “blind zone”: aspects of our own culture that have become so familiar they quietly shape our perceptions, expectations, and judgments without our noticing.

Every question can improve our footing

In intercultural encounters, many misunderstandings do not arise because people lack intelligence or goodwill. They arise because we stop being curious. We simply assume that we interpret another person’s behaviour correctly. A direct remark becomes rudeness. Silence becomes disinterest. Emotional expressiveness becomes irrationality. Formality becomes distance. We instinctively assess unfamiliar behaviour through the norms we ourselves take for granted.

Curiosity interrupts that process

Instead of asking only, Why do they behave like that?, curiosity also asks, Why does this behaviour affect me the way it does? Why does it surprise me? Why does it irritate me? Why do I instinctively see it as appropriate—or inappropriate? Those questions often reveal as much about our own culture as about the culture we are trying to understand.

Intercultural curiosity is therefore not only outward-looking but also very much inward-looking. It explores not only another person’s frame of reference, but also our own. It reminds us that every judgement begins from somewhere.

Research in psychology increasingly suggests that curiosity is closely connected to intellectual humility. Curious people are generally more willing to recognise that their first interpretation may be incomplete. They tolerate ambiguity better, seek additional information and remain open to perspectives that challenge their own assumptions. These are precisely the qualities that intercultural dialogue requires.

Curiosity also protects us against one of the greatest obstacles to meaningful conversation: the illusion that we already understand. The longer we work internationally, the easier it becomes to believe that we have “seen it all”. Experience is invaluable, but experience without curiosity can gradually harden into certainty. Expertise then becomes a filter rather than a window.

At On Equal Footing, we see curiosity as an active competence rather than a personality trait. Like listening, it can be developed through deliberate practice.

That practice often begins with surprisingly simple questions:

What might I be overlooking?

Which assumptions am I bringing into this conversation?

Why does this behaviour trigger such a strong reaction in me?

What historical, social or personal context may explain what I am observing?

Which question would help me understand before I evaluate?

These questions do not guarantee agreement. Nor should they. Intercultural understanding is not moral relativism. Some behaviours deserve criticism. Some values are non-negotiable. Universal human rights remain universal.

But curiosity allows us to distinguish more carefully between understanding and approving. Understanding why people think or behave as they do does not require us to endorse those behaviours. Equally, understanding why we react as we do does not require us to abandon our own values. It simply allows us to recognise that our first interpretation is not the only possible one.

In an increasingly polarised world, certainty is often rewarded. Social media encourages immediate opinions. Political debate favours quick conclusions. Curiosity, by contrast, slows us down. It invites us to investigate before we categorise, to reflect before we judge, and to understand both the other person and ourselves before we respond.

This is why curiosity deserves a more central place in intercultural competence. It helps us recognise that every person carries a story we have not yet heard—and that every one of us carries a culture we have not yet fully examined. At OEF!, we believe that better intercultural conversations do not begin with better answers. They begin with better questions—and with the courage to ask some of those questions of ourselves.

Our OEF! intercultural training courses very much include this approach. Don't feel the curiosity? No problem. The first step in our training is to get your doubts, reservations, or inhibitions about curiosity out of the way!

ON EQUAL FOOTING takeaway:

"Curiosity gives us the footing to step beyond first impressions. The more willing we are to question our own assumptions, the more room we create to truly understand others."

Every question improves your footing slogan of the day