Mona Lisa effect

[Ron Nossaman]

> Ron N said: "The basic premise is widely accepted without question, and
> those accepting it are relieved of the burden of having to learn different."
> 
> I think that is a profound way of describing every prejudice, from pianos
> to people, race to religion, and the way so many (most?) grow up with fixed
> and darned near intractable ideas about the world. Intellectual laziness.
> Mental mire. Cerebral concrete. Premature hardening of the categories.
> 
> Part of it is anxiety, I think. People get comfortable with a belief system
> (of any sort, but religion is the classic example) and are afraid to think
> beyond it because they want to believe the matter is settled and done with,
> that they are on the right road, as it were.
> 
> Now, regarding Steinway & Sons: If your job is to peddle $45,000 (and way
> up) pianos that are not proportionately better or more costly to build than
> a Kawai, fr'instance, then you have GOT to be a TRUE BELIEVER (or a
> dangerous sociopath), else how could you sleep at night. I'm grinnin' here,
> but there's an element of truth to it, isn't there?
> 
> Alan Barnard


I sure think so. "That's the way I was taught", or "brought up", is 
too often used as a get out of thought free card so we don't have to 
take the responsibility for our own opinions. But salesmen are 
another species altogether, and assuredly sociopathic.

Ron N