I remember this phenomenon from high school English class. The teacher would ask an obvious question, and inevitably someone would reflexively provide the non-

I remember this phenomenon from high school English class. The teacher would ask an obvious question, and inevitably someone would reflexively provide the non-obvious wrong answer. I assumed the thought process was this: a teacher hardly ever asks questions with obvious answers, and I rarely understand what's going on, so when I give an answer I'm going to say the opposite of the obvious answer because that will probably be right. It's similar to how under-educated people will use reflexive pronouns and words they don't understand in order to sound educated or important. I know there is a better name for this than "meta-contrarian." Unfortunately my education is failing myself here. :-)