Does anyone know of studies relating to distributions of like/dislike?

[Thomas]

Okay, I'm turing up blanks here but perhaps someone knows of what I speak.

As individuals and as a culture we have likes, dislikes, and probably a range of indifference between the two. My intial thoughts were that a charted distribution of reactions might fall along a bell curve - which would indicate a symmetrical distribution between likes and dislikes.

But, I don't really have a basis for adopting a bell curve, nor can I say with any sort of reliability where to draw the line between indifference and like/dislike. If I put the line at 1 standard deviation, then that indicates that roughly 16% of a population will like a given thing...although if I say 'likes enough to buy", then 16% may have some legitimacy for a given population.

This whole business gets put sideways, though, in an asymmetrical distribution of dislike / indifference / likes.

So, what I'm getting at is: does anybody know of studies that relate to the distribution of likes/indifference/dislikes for a population, at least to discern a rough guide? Or is the standard distribution good enough in this case?

 

[Hombre Secreto]

http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/aake...of-Culture.pdf

 

[rach2jlc]

Bourdieu's "Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste" maybe?

Obviously, it will be more qualitative than quantitative, but still is a fascinating read as to how these things develop.

http://www.amazon.com/Distinction-So.../dp/0674212770

 

[ysc]

Like dislike of what? I have done some psychology and behavioural biology and what you are asking sounds related, I might be able to track down some papers for you, but, to me at least, it wasn't quite clear what you wanted from your post. In general if you want to find some of the papers on a topic look it up on Wikipedia, the papers cited at the bottom are actually not a bad place to start. This might be interesting - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=6463387 Everyones favourite pop-philosopher Alain De Botton on the psychology of choice.

 

[Blackhood]

I did some training during my younger years, and I can safely say that each person with in a Social Interaction Matrix (SIM) has maybe 6 things they like. If a Sim does something it likes, it will be happy.

As I moved deeper into the Sims study, I found that many sims enjoy "House Party", "Hot Date" and "Vacation. I haven't seen the conclusion of the study, but I am lead to believe that it places the "Sims" in a more 3 dimensional view.