Post by Evolve: A Social Impact Company

What is the single most reliable predictor of deep human connection? According to recent 2025/2026 research involving over 600 participants, it isn’t just eye contact or body language. It's a simple, trainable behaviour... Asking follow-up questions. When a teacher or mentor says, "Tell me more," they aren’t just gathering information. They are actively satisfying a young person's fundamental psychological needs for autonomy, agency, and affinity. In a world where young people are increasingly filling their "relational voids" with Instagram influencers and AI companions, genuine human curiosity has become a superpower. In John's latest blog, Magnificent Humans: Why We Must Cultivate Curiosity, he dives into the emerging science of listening and his key takeaways are as follows: > Curiosity is trainable – Research (Letendre Jauniaux & Lawford, 2024) proves interpersonal curiosity is a state we can explicitly teach and develop. > The "Corrective Relational Experience" – For children who have experienced chronic rejection, an adult who listens with genuine curiosity builds a mechanism of trust that a chatbot simply cannot reach. > Questioning the answers – Our ultimate goal as educators shouldn't be teaching children and young people how to find answers, but cultivating the curiosity to question the answers they are given. Read the full article here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/evVzJzSn #Mentoring #ChildDevelopment #EduChat #EdLeaders #TeachTheFuture