There is a psychological concept known as cognitive dissonance. In this process,
a person is absolutely convinced of the wisdom and correctness of his choice or
decision in a given situation, even when there is considerable evidence to the
contrary. I suspect that cognitive dissonance plays a role in the fanaticism
of certain telescope buyers.

This would be especially true if they had to wait a decade and pay much more,
compared to other scopes that were readily available and reasonably priced. For
such people, star tests, bench tests, objective comparisons and magazine reviews
would not dislodge them from their beliefs.

Steve Gaber
Sanderling, 1967 C-31 #77
Oldsmar, FL



---- Bill G <bglick@...> wrote:
> At the risk of being strung up and quartered by an angry mob, here's
> why, IMHO.
> > If the review gives the AP the edge, there will be a lot of nodding
> > heads and seemingly knowing smiles going around and all will be right
> > in the world according to some. But if it went the other way,
> > armegedon will not even begin to adequately describe the backlash.
> > There will be a lot of bandwidth used up all in the name of justice.
> > I think even a draw would create a flurry of unpleasant posts.
>
> Vincent...this is soooo
> true.... every field has brand loyalist, but I have never experienced
> anything like the true loyalist in the refractor field. They will
> defend their favorites right to death, even if they have NO CLUE how the
> other scopes perform. It borders on insanity. I think partly this is
> due to protect the large investment many have in their Premium brand
> scopes.....

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