BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Joy of Learning: Reclaiming Engagement, Curiosity, and Meaning in EducationView all 6 articles
J-EC Scale in English A Japan-origin Motivational Framework for Diversive and Specific Curiosity: Development of the English Version of the Japanese Epistemic Curiosity Scale
Provisionally accepted
- 1Osaka Shogyo Daigaku, Higashiosaka, Japan
- 2Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
- 3Araya Inc, Tokyo, Japan
- 4University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
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Curiosity is a fundamental human drive to explore, the desire to know. In particular, epistemic curiosity is the central construct in individual differences in curiosity. Epistemic curiosity represents a manifestation of exploratory behavior within the intellectual and cognitive domains. Japanese studies in epistemic curiosity have developed independently, based on Hatano and Inagaki's theory. Studies have been conducted on the role of learning and education for the two types of epistemic curiosity, diversive and specific curiosity. The Japan version of the Epistemic Curiosity (J-EC) scale, which measures these two types as a personality trait, has been developed based upon empirical studies using the J-EC scale. We thought it was necessary to develop an English version of the J-EC scale, in order to be able to make international comparisons of levels of curiosity among Japanese people. In this study, we translated the J-EC scale into English and assessed its factor structure, reliability, and validity. Results of factor analysis and correlation analysis validated the factor structure of diversive and specific curiosity, and the reliability and validity of diversive and specific curiosity subscales almost perfectly in accordance with our hypotheses.
Keywords: curiosity, Diversive curiosity, Epistemic curiosity, exploration, Openness to experience, Specific curiosity
Received: 21 Jan 2026; Accepted: 13 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Nishikawa, Kanai, Taiyo Hamada, Ward and Kusumi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kazuji Nishikawa
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