Mass Delusion: The Need to Approve
Why do we look at the same thing and see something different? And why do we read the same book and have completely different and opposite reactions? Some will say this is due to our different personalities, experiences, and emotional backgrounds. That may be true in a sense, but I believe, in many cases, it runs deeper than that.
A typical example is Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist." Opinions and reviews of this book range from "A miraculous piece of writing" all the way to "Utter drivel, badly written, righteous, condescending, preachy." (Full disclosure: I am in the utter drivel camp). Now, I'm not saying that tastes don't count, but there are some objective facts that should not be disputed (for instance, that the book is arguably dull), and yet they are. Why is that?
I think the positive response to this book may be attributable to a "mass delusion," defined(1) as "a false belief shared by a large group of people. Mass delusions are man-made by diverse influences to promote financial, political, or psychosocial goals." It probably started with a well-designed campaign, resulting in a few stellar reviews, which influenced the next readers.
However, more than positive reviews are needed to convince new readers to join the eulogy; the book needs to have additional traits, which this book has. Specifically, it has to make absolutely no sense to the reader, which in many cases will create a cognitive dissonance. The easiest way to escape this dissonance is to agree with those before us who wrote magnificent things about the book, and so the faction allegedly loving the book is created. A smaller portion of readers, who for whatever reason are not prone to this type of cognitive dissonance, see the book for what it is and join the utter drivel camp.
This is not dissimilar to a visit to a museum of modern art. Huge canvasses hang on walls, littered with various materials, including sometimes dung, to create shapes unpleasing to the eye. They are pretty awful and meaningless, but hey! They are in a museum, so they must be good. Thus, we gape at them in admiration. Again, this is the result of mass delusion.
I wouldn't mind that too much if I didn't suspect that the museum curators were watching me via CCTV and laughing at my expenses. And so I expect is doing Paulo Coehlo, laughing all the way to the bank.
In all fairness, "The Alchemist" is not alone. I have several other examples of similar mass delusions, but I have already made enough enemies for one day so I won't name them.
(1) See Alen J Salerian, "An epidemic of man-made mass delusions," J Psychol Clin Psychiatry. 2016;5(1):14‒12.
