Epistemic Vigilance: Enhanced Recall for the Source of Minimally Counterintuitive Concepts

Two studies investigate epistemic vigilance, how the mind evaluates communicated information. Participants read stories, each containing concepts consistent or inconsistent with intuitive expectations, communicated by different individuals. As hypothesized, recall was greater for the source of minimally counterintuitive versus intuitive concepts. The results suggest counterintuitive concepts exhibit distinct representational characteristics.