Name: Surprise
Author: Tania Luna and LeeAnn Renninger

What’s in it for me? Discover the exciting possibilities of surprise.

If you are like most people, control and predictability are your friends. It’s nice when things go according to plan, and quite unpleasant when your day is suddenly turned upside-down.

But did you know that embracing the unpredictable is actually linked to happiness, growth and improved connections with others?

These blinks explore the unpredictable, and the inner workings of surprise. By gaining a deeper understanding of what exactly surprise is and how it occurs, you can learn how to thrive in contexts of uncertainty and start creating surprises for yourself and others.

In the blinks, you’ll discover

how to trigger the duh face;
why people contact psychics; and
the benefits of a starry sky.

Surprise is a feeling triggered by the brain when it fails to predict what will happen next.

In a world rife with uncertainty, we often experience the sensation of surprise, whether it delights us or upsets us. But how exactly does surprise work?

Surprise is activated when your brain fails to predict what will happen in the next moment.

Your brain is endlessly whirring away, trying to predict what is about to take place; if something unpredictable happens, it immediately shifts into action.

This function of the brain actually has an evolutionary advantage: when faced with a hungry predator, our prehistoric ancestors needed the sensation of surprise in order to react as soon as possible, and not end up as dinner.

So what goes on in our brain when we’re surprised? Interestingly, the surprise response consists of several stages – a surprise sequence.

Imagine yourself coming home to a room full of people yelling “SURPRISE!” The surprise sequence would go something like this:

Freeze phase: in a fraction of a second, the surprise takes away your cognitive resources and brings all of your attention to the object of surprise, leaving you with the well-known duh face.

Find phase: Your brain clambers through all the available information to figure out what on Earth just happened. In this case your brain realizes, “My friends gathered to throw me a surprise party!”

Shift phase: Now your framework for understanding your circumstances shifts; the way you viewed your situation before has been altered by the surprise. You might start to think, “I won’t have a typical evening by myself tonight, but instead I’ll be partying with my friends.”

Share phase: The previous three phases are hard work for the brain, so in order to lighten the workload, you share the experience with others. In this case, this means talking to your friends about it.

In today’s world, people need both surprise and predictability.

We live with uncertainty on a daily basis, but the world is also framed and structured, which causes a certain degree of predictability. So, what does this contradiction do to us?

The unreliability of our world can induce anxiety, which in turn creates a need for predictability.

By being open to differences and balancing levels of surprise, you can improve the quality of your relationships.

Healthy relationships have a positive effect on our well-being, and if you let more surprise into your relationships, they will often flourish as a result. So how can you do this?

Welcoming difference and complexity are key steps in allowing surprise to emerge. Being open to complexity means not staunchly defending your personal opinions on culture, politics, religion and so forth. Instead, embracing differences will encourage the element of surprise in your relationships.

To surprise yourself, collect novel experiences and seek awe.

Did you know that you needn’t wait for the world to surprise you? You’re perfectly capable of surprising yourself!

One way you can continually surprise yourself is by collecting novelty, that is, gathering experiences you’ve never had before. New experiences are by their very nature inherently unpredictable, so they’re packed with surprises.

Key ideas in Surprise

About the Author

A self-proclaimed surprisologist, Tania Luna is a co-founder and CEO of Surprise Industries – the only company in the world specializing in surprise. Luna has given a TED talk and is one of the leaders at LifeLabs New York.

LeeAnn Renninger holds a PhD in social psychology and is a co-founder and director of training at LifeLabs New York.