What makes a Curiosity Spike hook work?

A Curiosity Spike hook activates Information Gap Effect, a behavioral mechanism the brain processes involuntarily. Once triggered, the viewer's attention locks until the psychological tension resolves. Heista's decoded ad data shows Curiosity Spike hooks consistently produce high-scaling creatives when paired with congruent follow-through beats.

How can I use a Curiosity Spike hook in my own ads?

Start by writing 5 variations of the hook targeting your specific audience. Each variation should preserve the Information Gap Effect mechanism but swap in your audience's language, pain points, and identity markers. Heista generates ready-to-shoot scripts using decoded hook structures like Curiosity Spike, automatically matched to your brand voice and product.

Hook Type · Information Gap Effect

Curiosity Spike Hook — Examples, Psychology & Scaling Data

A Curiosity Spike is an opening hook that creates an information gap the viewer's brain feels compelled to close. It's built on George Loewenstein's information-gap theory of curiosity: when someone senses a specific piece of missing knowledge, their working memory allocates attention to resolving it, even if the topic has no prior relevance to them. In video ads, this shows up as a partial reveal, a teased secret, or a counterintuitive claim that demands clarification. The viewer doesn't scroll because scrolling means leaving the gap unresolved — and the brain processes unresolved gaps as low-grade psychological tension.

Curiosity Spike Performance Data

From 88+ high-performing video ads decoded by Heista.

The Psychology Behind the Hook

Mechanism: Information Gap Effect

A Curiosity Spike is an opening hook that creates an information gap the viewer's brain feels compelled to close. It's built on George Loewenstein's information-gap theory of curiosity: when someone senses a specific piece of missing knowledge, their working memory allocates attention to resolving it, even if the topic has no prior relevance to them. In video ads, this shows up as a partial reveal, a teased secret, or a counterintuitive claim that demands clarification. The viewer doesn't scroll because scrolling means leaving the gap unresolved — and the brain processes unresolved gaps as low-grade psychological tension.

The reason Curiosity Spike hooks outperform generic openings is that information gap effect is processed involuntarily. The viewer's brain cannot opt out — the response fires before conscious attention decides whether to engage. That pre-conscious hook is what buys the 2-5 second window the rest of the ad needs to make its case.

Write a Curiosity Spike hook for your brand

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