It happens to the best of us

 

I have to admit that the first time I watched this clip I secretly rejoiced: it was about time that somebody called out on those art snobs, I thought. Let's face it, most of you who watched this video felt some sense of vindication. The fact, that a bunch of Dutch art experts mistake a cheap Ikea painting for a great masterpiece should make us think though. This is definitely a great reminder for us not to rely too much on what experts say and indeed, learn to question the status quo. But, no matter how tempted we might be,  it would be way too reductive if we dismissed them as phonies.

In this excerpt from "You are Not so Smart,"  David McRaney makes a compelling argument explaining why wine connoisseurs gaffed when they tasted dyed white wine, depicting it as red. It turns out that their judgment had been affected by the distorted environment (The brain saw red!) Just like the connoisseurs, the art experts were put off track because the work of art appeared in the National Art Museum--not in just any common art shop-- and that heavily impacted the way they perceived it. It makes sense, doesn't it?

We're all vulnerable to this because the way we experience things is heavily swayed by the expectations that we set. We would never expect a virtuoso violinist to perform at a train station, so we assume and we walk on. Many of us do this every day with the food they eat, the music they hear and the clothes they wear.

McRaney's premise is that we're really not that smart, so we fall victims to our own bias. This had me thinking hard. Frankly, I can live with being clueless when attempting to taste red wine or critiquing a piece of art --imagine if nobody ever found out it was, in fact, an Ikea piece? We'd be auctioning it to the highest bidder and studying about it on the art textbooks-- but what about things that really matter such as the relationships and the paths we choose to take? Do we have control over these or are our minds playing tricks on us in these areas as well?