In Tradition We Trust

“If something has been around longer, it must be better. New research suggests we hold onto that bias even in instances where quality has nothing to do with longevity.” Miller-McCune reports on a recent study: “For all our fascination with novelty, human beings seem to have an instinctual preference for the tried and true. That’s the implication of research that finds telling people something has stood the test of time makes them more likely to judge it favorably, whether they are assessing art or acupuncture. ‘The longer something is thought to exist, the better it is evaluated,’ write the authors of the just-published study, University of Arkansas psychologists Scott Eidelman and Jennifer Pattershall and University of Kansas psychologist Christian Crandall.”