The Optimal Cognitive Template of Minimally Counterintuitive Narratives

After studying the differences between culturally successful and unsuccessful folk tales, Norenzayan et al. (2006) recently postulated that culturally successful folk tales share a structure. In particular, they argued that having two or three minimally counterintuitive concepts made a story more memorable which in turn gave it transmission advantages allowing it to become widespread. This paper reports on a study conducted to test that hypothesis. This involved presenting subjects with stories containing 1,3, or 6 minimially counterintuitive concepts and measuring the story recall. The experiments do not support the Norenzayan et al. hypothesis and suggest that there is no one optimal template for counterintuitive narratives. The paper suggests that an alternative account is needed to explain recall and comprehension for stories containing counterintuitive ideas.