While we can answer the reason why we value diamond so much, although we do not like coal, although the building material is the same element, as the fact that diamonds were formed as a result of millions of years and that they are rare, many of us will have difficulty in answering the question “why do we continue to eat the hot pepper we eat even though it hurts us”.
Yale University psychologist Dr. Based on the evidence he found from his research, Paul Bloom says that the reason behind our love for something is a little more about the meaning we attach to it.
In fact, one of the best examples of this is the video of famous violinist Joshua Bell playing the violin for 45 minutes in a subway station in 2007, which many of us come across.
Joshua Bell earns $32 in 45 minutes with a $3.5 million violin in his hand, but nearly 1000 people passing by, including those who give him money, do not even stop and listen to the piece he is playing. But the ticket to the Boston Symphony Hall concert 2 nights ago was $100 and, as you can imagine, the hall was packed. Also, everyone in the hall was just there to listen to him.
Love works in our biology!
Professor of the University of Michigan, who has been doing research on the love for objects for many years, to the question of why we love things. Aaron Ahuvia replies, “While we love something when we think it’s great, there’s actually something deeper behind our ability to connect with that object.
Think of someone you care about giving you a gift. You love that gift because of the person who gave it to you. The other important thing at this point is to see that object as a part of your being. Think of the sports teams you love, how we get angry when someone insults us, and how happy we are when the team wins.
As a result, we love it as much as the meaning we attribute to that object.
5 reasons why we love things:
Although this is generally thought to be related to our idea of that object, the meaning we attribute to that object and the connection we have established, there are also different explanations as follows.
1. The more you pay, the better!
According to the theory here, the more we pay, the more we value the product we buy, the more we love it. Or we love because we believe we should. As an example, we can give the following: Sometimes, even though the foods we pay a lot of money for are bad, we try to eat them thinking that our mouth tastes bad, that we are not used to them, that they are actually extremely delicious foods.
2. Yes, evolution is influencing here as well.
According to this theory, we tend to love things that will contribute to our survival and continue our species in the depths of our subconscious.
3. Who used that object before is also important.
One aspect of this theory is the gifts that people we care about give us. Or we may feel that the fact that they have used those objects establishes a bond between us and that person.
On the other hand, the high sums we pay for objects used by artists or famous people, but which are actually not very useful anymore. Here, too, there may be the belief that those objects are valuable, and the possibility that they can then be sold to others.
4. We love pain because we can control it.
Scientists investigating why we might love horror movies and hot peppers emphasize two things here. While the first is the feeling of relief after the pain that we love is not the pain we suffer, the second is that we can still control that pain. As long as pain can be controlled, it gives pleasure. Another theory, especially for horror movies, is that it may be loved for the purpose of experiencing things that can be dangerous in real life in a safe environment through movies and learning how we should react if we encounter them in real life.
Of course, another aspect is that we are trying to prove ourselves culturally, as you can imagine, that we are strong. Yes, I like horror movies very much, I like to eat hot pepper.
5. We love what we see (Home sweet home).
This point of view states that the individual tends to like the objects that exist in the culture they live in more. Maybe it’s because we’ve been taught not to like them. No matter how much we love to eat sushi, this may be the reason why we can’t stop eating beans.
Other examples we can explain with this theory would be: This is how we can explain why people retire and return to their home country after living in different countries for years. Or why people often choose mates from their own culture.
Sources: Forbes, YouTube, NPR, Psychological Science, Yale Insights
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