Setting step one as “Feel that you don’t already know the answer” fits with Loewenstein (1994)’s “gap theory of curiosity”, summarized by Cooney (2010):
[Loewenstein’s] theory is that curiosity happens when people feel a gap in their knowledge about something… Laying out a question and inviting others to ponder it will help keep the individual’s attention, because it gets them mentally involved and because there’s an element of unexpectedness. This is why cliffhangers are often used at the end of television soap operas, to get viewers to tune in to the next episode, or at the end of chapters in a thriller to keep readers glued to the page.
Taking the gap theory a step further, Harvard physics professor Eric Mazur has developed a teaching tool he calls concept testing. Mazur has found that posing a question to stimulate curiosity and then asking questions to vote publicly on the answer make them more engaged and curious about the outcome. Mazur has also found that fostering disagreement among students is particularly effective at stimulating interest. Not only has their curiosity been stimulated, but learning the answer now has personal relevance — it will show whether or not they’re smarter than their classmates.
Setting step one as “Feel that you don’t already know the answer” fits with Loewenstein (1994)’s “gap theory of curiosity”, summarized by Cooney (2010):
See also: Guthrie, I’m Curious: Can We Teach Curiosity?