The Irrational Bundle. Dan Ariely

or an entrée? And if you ate it, would you enjoy it as much as you might if you were eating the same food in Manhattan?

      On the basis of what we learned from Chapter 10, the answers are simple. Ambience and expectations do add a great deal to our enjoyment. You would expect less in such an environment, and as a consequence you would enjoy the experience at the truck stop less, even if you had the identical foie gras au torchon in both places. Likewise, if you knew that pâté is largely made of run-of-the-mill goose liver and butter* rather than super special ingredients, you would enjoy it much less.

      A FEW YEARS ago the folks at the Washington Post were curious about the same basic topic and decided to run an experiment.¹¹ Instead of food, they used music. The experimental question was this: can outstanding art shine through a filter of mundane and dingy expectation?

      Journalist Gene Weingarten asked Joshua Bell, generally considered one of the best violinists in the world, to pose as a street performer and play some of the finest music ever composed*