Longevity => More Positive Evaluation (07-22-10)

The longer something has been around, the more positive our evaluation of it.  Eidelman, Pattershall, and Crandall conducted a number of related experiments, some of which were related to aesthetic judgments of art and nature.  They found that “time in existence seems to operate as a heuristic: longer means better.”  Study participants were told the age of the material being assessed and that age was the only difference between items judged.  In the situations studied, age has no necessary relationship to quality (so wines were not evaluated, for instance).  This finding explains some of the more “interesting” assessments of objects and places designers encounter.

Scott Eidelman, Jennifer Pattershall, and Christian Crandall.  “Longer is Better.”  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, in press.