I’m struggling with the concept of objective surprise. Surprise is a subjective experience usually brought about by events differing from expectation, but the e

I’m struggling with the concept of objective surprise. Surprise is a subjective experience usually brought about by events differing from expectation, but the experience is entirely subjective. So my guess is that you mean the fact of results differing from expectation. There can be a difference between results and consensus expectation, but there can also be a difference between results and personal expectation (e.g., results do not support hypothesis). In the absence of explicitly calling out who holds the expectation, there is either context that makes it clear (e.g., the audience is experts in the field and the expectations are widely held) or the use is referring to the author’s own surprise. Simply claiming they are not equivalent is not correct. They are equivalent in the absence of context. It is only when context is considered (and just being a scholarly article isn’t necessarily enough context) that they might be considered non-equivalent.