Why schema-violations are sometimes preferable to schema-consistencies: The role of interest and openness to experience

•Openness to experience and need for structure predict reactions to schema-violations.•Schema-violations are seen as surprising, and this decreases acceptance of schema-violations.•When openness is high schema-violations are seen as interesting, and their acceptance increases.

We investigated the appraisal processes and personality antecedents that regulate people's attraction to schema-violations - targets and objects that disconfirm schema- and stereotype-based expectancies. In two studies a preference for schema-violations (vs. consistencies) correlated positively with openness to experience, and negatively with the need for structure. In the second study, schema-violations were seen as more surprising (by all individuals), decreasing intentions to approach schema-violations, but were also seen as more interesting (by those higher in openness to experience), increasing intentions to approach and accept schema-violations. This suggests that two opposing processes - appraisals of surprise and appraisals of interest - regulate reactions to schema-violations, and that these processes are bounded by individual differences in openness to experience.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (97KB)Download full-size image