Why are Consumer Tastes and Expert Judgments Different? A Case Study of the Movie Industry

摘要

Audiences' and critics' reception to the arts are generally different. This trend is especially evident in commercial arts like movies, television dramas and musicals. What explains the difference between consumers and critics' evaluation? Cultural commentators suggest that ordinary consumers' tastes differ from the criteria for excellence used by professional critics in providing expert judgments. In other words, critics' aesthetic values are more "lofty" than those of the general public. This is known as the elite hypothesis. If the elite hypothesis is true, critics would have little influence on consumers' tastes.