When cultural meanings defy expectations: cultural incongruence, epistemic curiosity, critical reflection, and cultural perspective taking in museum education

Introduction Museums increasingly serve as important settings for cultural learning, yet little is known about whether exhibits whose culturally contextualized meanings contradict visitors’ initial expectations can support deeper understanding. Drawing on transformative learning theory, this research examines theoretically connected relationships within a proposed staged framework linking cultural incongruence, epistemic curiosity, critical reflection, and cultural perspective taking. It also investigates the need for cognition as a boundary condition shaping the relationship between critical reflection and cultural perspective taking. Methods Two complementary studies were conducted in China. Study 1 employed a randomized scenario experiment with 165 undergraduate students who viewed a fictional museum exhibit under either a low- or high-cultural-incongruence condition. Independent-samples t -tests and PLS-SEM were used to examine the effects of the cultural incongruence manipulation on epistemic curiosity and critical reflection, as well as the mediating role of epistemic curiosity. Study 2 used a critical-incident recall survey with 218 adults who described a specific museum or cultural-exhibition experience. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to examine the association between critical reflection and cultural perspective taking and the moderating role of need for cognition. Results In Study 1, participants in the high-incongruence condition reported significantly greater epistemic curiosity and critical reflection than those in the low-incongruence condition. A significant positive indirect effect of the cultural incongruence manipulation on critical reflection through epistemic curiosity was also observed. In Study 2, critical reflection was positively associated with cultural perspective taking. The interaction between critical reflection and need for cognition was positive and significant, indicating that this association was stronger among participants with higher levels of need for cognition. Discussion The findings suggest that expectation-defying cultural meanings do not necessarily impede museum learning. Instead, cultural incongruence may expose limitations in visitors’ existing interpretive frameworks, stimulate inquiry-oriented motivation, and encourage the reconsideration of culturally situated assumptions. By identifying epistemic curiosity as a potential motivational pathway linking the cultural-incongruence manipulation with critical reflection, and by showing a positive association between critical reflection and cultural perspective taking in recalled museum experiences, this research provides complementary evidence for different parts of a proposed transformative-learning framework in museum education.