Subvert their expectations like a rat

A is for ACCURATE

hereismatias

Jun 19, 2023

This is Bob Rosenthal, your next favorite research psychologist gangster.

Mr. Rosenthal presenting his study results.

On a cold winter night. Bob snuck into his lab on a secret mission: to randomly label every rat cage.

The labels were either "maze-bright" or "maze-dull."

Bob came back the next day and told his team:

"For the next week, some of you are going to work with very smart rats or very dumb rats.

Your job is to run your rat through a maze and record how well it does."

What did they find?

The rats labeled "maze-bright" performed much better compared to the "maze-dull" rats. Even though they were originally selected at random.

The experiment demonstrated that the researchers' expectations influenced their treatment of the rats, which, in turn, influenced their performance.

Why am I telling you this?

Because expectations are powerful and inevitable. Stories subverting expectations are satisfying. They produce a little dopamine kick that keeps people engaged.

It's a fine line: too many "unexpectations" (I'm trademarking that one) and your audience will be confused. Too little “unexpectations” (you say it un-esh-pekk-teishens), and they'll get bored.

You don't need a big plot twist, micro-unexpectations go a long way.

I have two examples for you. The right and the wrong.

The Wire: no flashy reveals to forward the story. However, their characters’ outcomes are -for the most part- a couple of blocks away from what you were expecting.