Openness/Intellect is the Big Five trait most tightly bound to intelligence, and the strongest links to intelligence are facets like "intellectual engagement" and "unconventionality"; big brains like big questions, unusual ideas, abstract debate, and exploring how systems work (Anglim et al., 2022). We find it fascinating to learn new things and enjoy chasing knowledge so that we can level up our understanding of the world around us (Smillie et al., 2021).
The method has been tremendously successful for science, as we've discovered what makes up the Universe, in what proportion, and what the force laws are that govern physical scales ranging from the subatomic to the cosmological.