http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/YesNoMaybeHands.jpg

I agree with you, but I'm as guilty as the next person of not clicking on Interesting Question. I'd go a bit further down your road and say that if a question has 8-10 Answers or more, and nobody marked is as interesting, what the heck is that all about? It seems awfully odd for nearly a dozen people to voluntarily spend 5-10 minutes writing an answer to a question that they DON'T find interesting, doesn't it?

So, why do we do it (or why do we NOT do it). It could be that some folks have never even noticed the button, but I confess that is not the case with me. It could be that the answerer is so anxious to begin answering (perhaps before he forgets his train of thought), that he jumps right to the answer without taking time or thought to complete the Interesting Question mark. It could be that they think they will be required to add a tip if they mark the question as Interesting. One thing that probably contributes to the number of folks not choosing one or the other is that it is optional and the program never directs you to choose. Even if it was optional, it could be programed to accept an answer of "yes", "no", or "continue".

Perhaps it's a mini rebellion for really timid people. ("Nobody can make me choose Interesting!").

I have to admit that I don't even know what an "Interesting " designation does. Does it push the question to the top of the que? If so, that would be a reason to mark it as interesting, if you wanted others to see it and answer it. Perhaps if answerers knew there was an effect to their vote, they would participate.

I hope you noticed that I marked your question as interesting. I suspect that I will be doing so more often, now that it's been brought to my attention.

Maybe people just can't make decisions, like these guys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpYEJx7PkWE