What makes us love some things and hate others? We know that sometimes even the tiniest change can result in a huge difference in how we perceive something, so is there any rhyme or reason to our tastes and preferences? Here are three factors which play a role.

1. Conforming to expectation

In London a few years ago, two talented rappers called Silibil N' Brains took to the stage to perform at a music industry show for unsigned bands. They were an instant hit. Their outrageous West Coast - American style, brilliant rap lyrics and couldn't - care - less attitude had the music industry's talent spotters falling over themselves to sign the pair. In a short space of time, Silibil N’ Brains had a deal with a top management company, a contract with a major record label and an advance of $70,000 -- and they hadn’t even made a record. Before long, they were on tour with Eminem and out partying with Madonna. They were living the dream.

But two years ago the same two rappers were laughed off stage by the same talent spotters for singing the same sons. So what was the difference? Amazingly, it was their accent. You see, Silibil N' Brains weren't, in fact, from West Coast U. S. A. at all. They were from Dundee in Scotland. During the first audition they had used their Scottish accents when rapping and it had not gone down well. ''They just laughed at us, '' recalled Brains. ''We were heartbroken. We went back to Scotland with our tail between our legs''. The lesson for them was that to succeed, you have to conform to expectations and at that time everyone expected rappers to be American.

2. The benefit of hindsight

Some people are simply ahead of their time. It's common knowledge that Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime -the other 900 or so were unknown and unloved until after his death. Monet’s paintings. at least in his early career, was considered incomplete and ugly by critics at the time, while Vermeer, the painter of Girl With a Pearl Earring, even had to use his mother-in-law as a guarantor when he borrowed money -- so unable was he to sell any of his work! Now that public taste has caught up with these artists, more or less anything they touched has an astronomical price tag attached to it. Perhaps the reason is that it just takes a while to get used to something - after all, not all beauty is obvious at first sight.

3. A reassuring price tag

In a world where the range of products on offer can be completely bewildering, we often look to price as an indication of quality. We may think we prefer the expensive wine to the cheap one, but we may simply be influenced by the price tag. Even professionals can make the mistake. A researcher from the University of Bordeaux in France took an average bottle of red wine and poured it into two empty bottles, on with an expensive label and the other with a cheap one. Then he invited 57 wine ''experts'' to taste the wine. Forty of them recommended the wine from the expensive bottle, describing it as ''agreeable'', ''complex'', ''balanced'' and ''rounded''. while the same wine from the expensive bottle, describing it as ''agreeable'', ''complex'', ''balanced'' and ''rounded'', while the same wine from the cheap bottle was described as ''weak'' and ''flat'', with only 12 of the experts recommending it. The study made the researcher unpopular with the French wine tasters, but he did prove that price has a significant impact on taste.

“Find your passion!” is an appeal well-intended and meant to inspire. But is it good advice?

“Finding” a passion implies that it already exists and is simply waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately, this idea doesn’t square with what science tells us. Instead, passions are developed. They often begin with a spark (火花) of curiosity caused by something in one’s environment, such as a fascinating physics lecture. Through a process involving repeated engagement and-positive experiences, people can come to personally value that content or activity and internalize it. What was at first interesting becomes an interest. If these qualities continue to intensify, a passion can emerge.

Actually, assuming passion as inborn tend to cause people to be less open, less courageous in the face of challenges and less creative in pursuit of new interests. Thus, encouraging people to “find” their passion may cause them to eventually believe that interests and passions are unchangeable. People who think this have a fixed mindset of interest. By contrast, some people, whom we refer to as having a growth mindset of interest, view their interests and passions as developed.

People with a fixed mindset of interest, for example, may fall into the trap of thinking, “If I have already found my passion, why keep exploring?” In recent studies, after engaging in a new science task, arts students with a fixed mindset expressed less interest in a scientific topic than arts students with a growth mindset. Meanwhile, science students with a fixed mindset responded similarly to an art-related task. For those with a growth mindset, having a strong pre-existing interest in the arts or sciences did not get in the way of them viewing a new area as interesting.

Worse still, people with a fixed mindset of interest tend to expect their passions to provide limitless motivation, such that their favorite topics should never feel too difficult or demanding. Such a mindset can also limit creativity and innovation. If people believe they are restricted to only a few inborn interests and, in consequence, do not explore other areas, they may miss seeing important connections across different fields. That loss is especially unfortunate considering how leaders at innovative companies have long prized problem-solving that draw ideas from diverse disciplines.

Of course, not every activity will become a burning passion. But a growth mindset of interest will help you remain open and curious. The old saying “find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” needs to be updated.

A Brown University sleep researcher has some advice for people who run high schools: Don't start classes so early in the morning. It may not be that the students whonod offat their desks are lazy. And it may not be that their parents have failed to make sure bedtime. Instead, it may be that biologically these sleepyhead students aren't used to the early hour. "Maybe these kids are being asked to get up at the wrong time for their bodies, " says Mary Carskadon, a professor looking at problems of adolescent sleep at Brown's School of Medicine.

Carskadon is trying to understand more about the effects of early school time in adolescents. And , at a more basic level, she and her team are trying to learn more about how the biological changes of adolescence affect sleep needs and patterns. Carskadon says her work suggests that adolescents may need more sleep than they did at childhood, no less, as commonly thought. Sleep patterns change during adolescence, as any parent of an adolescent can prove. Most adolescents prefer to stay up later at night and sleep later in the morning. But it's not just a matter of choice—their bodies are going through a change of sleep patterns.

All of this makes the change from middle school to high school—which may start one hour earlier in the morning—all the more difficult, Carskadon says. With their increased need for sleep and their biological clocks set on the "sleep late, rise late" pattern, adolescents are up against difficulties when it comes to trying to be up by 5 or 6 a. m. for a 7: 30 a. m. first bell. A short sleep on a desktop may be their bodies' way of saying, "I need a timeout. "