The Expectation Lens
By Daniel Miessler on November 21st, 2007: Tagged as Movies | Psychology
The expectation lens is a phenomenon that modifies how one perceives a movie. Like myopia and presbyopia it can go two ways:
- You expect a movie to be horrible, so it ends up appearing better than it actually was.
- You expect a movie to be excellent, so it ends up appearing worse than it actually was.
Two extremes of this phenomenon are old classics you happen to catch on TV, and big-name movies you see in the theater.
Random TV movies make use of the LEL (Low Expectation Lens) and yield more satisfaction, while big-screen blockbusters employ the HEL (High Expectation Lens) and tend to disappoint.: