WASHINGTON 鈥� Author Tom Vanderbilt says his latest book began with a conversation with his 4-year-old daughter.
She asked him what his favorite color was, and 鈥淚 quickly gave her an answer: Blue,鈥� he told 蜜桃视频app. 鈥淏ecause this is what I think is my favorite color.鈥�
But after dropping her off at school, he says, he began to ask himself, 鈥淲hy do I like blue? Is that actually my favorite color? And when did this liking happen, and could it change in the future?鈥�
The result of his investigations is the book 鈥溾�� in which Vanderbilt examines preferences in colors, music, films and more, always asking, 鈥淲here did my tastes come from?鈥�
As the title implies, Netflix played a part in Vanderbilt鈥檚 investigations. He brought his history of viewing and rating to Netflix, and asked them, 鈥淲hy are you recommending all these films to me that I actually do not like?鈥�
He says now, 鈥淭he uncomfortable answer was, 鈥榃ell, we were looking at your real behavior, of what you鈥檙e actually watching, as opposed to what you say you like. So that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e showing you these Adam Sandler films.鈥�
That happens across art forms, and even to food, Vanderbilt says.聽鈥淲e all want to present an idealized view of ourselves,鈥� even though everyone has guilty pleasures, Vanderbilt said.
Another illustrative example from Netflix: Vanderbilt says they told him that the Al Gore documentary 鈥淎n Inconvenient Truth鈥� was the DVD that stayed out the longest before being returned. 鈥淧eople wanted to watch that,鈥� Vanderbilt reasoned. 鈥淭hey brought it home 鈥� it took them a while to actually get to that; it鈥檚 not the most feel-good film.鈥�
So, what did he find out about why blue is his favorite color? It turns out it鈥檚 the favorite color of a lot of people. Vanderbilt says it鈥檚 because of exposure. Researchers told him that babies鈥� favorite color is generally a yellow-brown, but that people are influenced by their exposure to natural phenomena such as the sky and water.
鈥淲e鈥檙e exposed to things we like in the world, and a lot of those things are blue,鈥� he said.
He found that tastes in food change largely due to exposure as well. While people are biologically disposed to like sugar, since it鈥檚 a diet essential, it takes kids about 10 exposures to a particular food before they start to like it.
The same goes for adults too. Vanderbilt said he assumed there was some deep biological reason he didn鈥檛 like fennel. But after he had some fennel dishes at restaurants and learned ways to cook it himself, 鈥渘ow I like fennel.鈥�
He concludes, 鈥淟iking is learning. If we just have more exposures to something, a new way to think about it, we鈥檙e going to grow to like it.鈥�
