Year: 2007
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Surprise is often thought of as an experience that is elicited \nfollowing an unexpected event. However, it may also be the \ncase that surprise stems from an event that is simply difficult \nto explain. In this paper, we investigate the latter view. \nSpecifically, we question why the provision of an enabling \nfactor can mitigate perceived surprise for an unexpected event \ndespite lowering the overall probability of that event. One \npossibility is that surprise occurs when a person cannot \nrationalise an outcome event in the context of the scenario \nrepresentation. A second possibility is that people can \ngenerate plausible explanations for unexpected events but that \nsurprise is experienced when those explanations are uncertain. \nWe explored these hypotheses in an experiment where a first \ngroup of participants rated surprise for a number of scenario \noutcomes and a second group rated surprise after generating a \nplausible explanation for those outcomes. Finally, a third \ngroup of participants rated surprise for the both the original \noutcomes and the reasons generated for those outcomes by \nthe second group. Our results suggest that people can come \nup with plausible explanations for unexpected events but that \nsurprise results when these explanations are uncertain.
Authors: Rebecca Maguire, Phil Maguire, Mark T. Keane
Language: English
Subfield: General Decision Sciences
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W330784614