It Pays To Be Weird
At least if you’re an artist:
A new study shows that because of this widely held stereotype [that creative people are eccentric], people infer that work made by an eccentric person is better and more valuable than work produced by a conventional character. …
Students rated the unconventional art of Joseph Beuys (“The Pack”) more positively if they were told that Beuys was eccentric in that he had a habit of carrying roadside stones on his head. However, the same yarn about Andrea del Verrocchio did not lead to higher ratings for his conventional art (“Lady of Flowers”). Similarly, seeing a photo of Lady Gaga crouching in an usual outfit (tight, all black, with shiny mask) led student participants to rate her as more highly skilled compared to seeing her seated in a conventional black dress; unless, that is, the students were told that Gaga’s eccentricity is fake and no more than a marketing ploy. In other words, eccentricity of the artist leads to more positive ratings of their work, unless that work is conventional, and/or the artist’s unusual behaviour is seen as contrived.
(Photo of “The Pack” by Joseph Beuys, 1969, by Jerzy Kociatkiewicz)



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