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SMaRT: Understanding responses to inconsistency using sense motivation and response theory
Jason P Martens1, Bastiaan T Rutjens2
1Capilano University, North Vancouver, Canada.
Acta Psychologica
|January 14, 2026
Summary
People need their experiences to make sense. When reality conflicts with expectations, this causes anxiety, motivating a hierarchical response to restore coherence and enhance learning.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Inconsistencies between associations and reality are common.
- Existing theories explain threat compensation but lack integration.
- A need for sensical experiences, where reality aligns with expectations, is proposed.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce Sense Motivation and Response Theory (SMaRT).
- Explain the psychological mechanisms of experiencing and responding to inconsistencies.
- Synthesize threat-compensation theories into a unified framework.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical integration of learning, evolutionary psychology, and threat-compensation research.
- Development of SMaRT to explain responses to sense violations.
- Analysis of the hierarchical nature of anxiety-assuaging responses.
Main Results:
- SMaRT posits a fundamental need for sensical experiences.
- Sense violations trigger epistemic anxiety, motivating resolution.
- Responses are hierarchical, prioritizing direct resolution, and serve as adaptive learning mechanisms.
Conclusions:
- SMaRT offers a parsimonious, integrative explanation for responses to inconsistencies.
- Responses to inconsistencies are adaptive, promoting learning and understanding.
- SMaRT generates novel predictions and highlights the benefits of an integrative perspective.
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