Again, he is conservative and play for safety. Any improvement in taste would involve stepping on to fresh ground, and he is not prepared to do that. Somehow--generally by observing the likes and dislikes of people of similar mentality--he has discovered “what he likes”, and he sees no reason why he should take any risks. That is largely why he goes to see farces, reads detective yarns or tales of the wild and woolly West, and patronizes ballad-concerts and music-halls, but would never dream of venturing into a repertory theatre or a classical concert, or of reading a different type of book. His time, he thinks, and his money, are too precious for excursions into the unknown. That alone would be sufficient deterrent, but, in addition, it sets up prejudices. He does not want to explore, yet he has (subconsciously, of course) to justify his conservatism. This he does by raising an imaginary barrier between the things he knows he likes and the things he doesn’t know anything at all about and _might_ not like. When he is brought face to face with the unknown, rather than confess his ignorance and lack of enterprise, even to himself, rather than admit that his tastes are low, he jumps to the conclusion that he is wise to be wary and that there must be some good reason for his attitude. Thus he sets his mind at rest by retarding its development. Unfortunately there are outside influences which strengthen these prejudices. For instance, too many of those who appreciate, or pretend to appreciate, the best are apt to set themselves apart and to insist that there is an unbridgeable gulf between their art and that of the common herd. The average man hates this highbrow snobbery and hates, too, everything they are supposed to care for, since it is tarred with the same brush. Then, again, attempts to “improve” his taste for him generally arouse his ire and invoke further prejudices--mainly because the would-be improvers do not go the right way to work. It is not at all difficult to realize that, since we all regard art as matter for the exercise of taste, which is an individual prerogative--there is no absolute scale of artistic values, though there is a general consensus of educated opinion--the man who will readily accept the judgement of his intellectual superiors will not so readily accept the opinions of the artistically better informed.