The Online Spin blog points us to this University of Iowa research project on consumer knowledge and satisfaction. According to their experiments, consumers are often happier with their choice when they know less about what it is they bought. Says lead researcher Dhananjay Nayakankuppam:
”We found that once people commit to buying or consuming something, there’s a kind of wishful thinking that happens and they want to like what they’ve bought…. The less you know about a product, the easier it is to engage in wishful thinking. But the more information you have, the harder it is to kid yourself.”
I’m not sure if that means we should enable the delusions of our audiences, or withhold information to make those delusions easier to sustain. But it certainly reinforces the idea that arts audiences really want to justify their investment of time, money, and attention in an experience, and will bend their perceptions to get them there. It also underscores the power of choice in defining who we are, and confirming our sense of self. Says Nayakankuppam:
”Once we’ve committed to something, we want to be happy about the decision and that drives our perceptions about it…. It’s your decision, it’s a part of you, and that creates an emotional attachment.”
I notice a similar effect at performances. Each member of the audience WANTS to be carried away, wants to feel s/he made a savvy investment of time and money, wants to report enthusiastically (boastfully?) to her friends. So an excellent performance gets extra credit because of internal compulsions.
Dan Gilbert’s “Stumbling on Happiness” extensively catalogs this effect. The apparent effect on audiences was recently noted in the Wolf and Brown study on intrinsic impact of performances on audiences.