Aesthetic “Certification” and its Strategies

Abstract

Information asymmetry from aesthetic qualification gives rise to the search for information on the consumer’ s side. Neither the market nor the fixing of administrative standards can solve the information problem (see chapter 4). Consumers in search of a higher level of certainty on the quality of the goods they are going to buy resort to institutional solutions. They explicitly ask “someone” for a previous judgement on their quality. “Someone” who has to be trusted not because he represents any sort of public interest or collective willingness, but because “he knows” what other people do not know about quality. In people’s opinion, this “someone” is entitled to “certify” because he is able “to interpret”; that is to perceive the aesthetic qualification of the good, even while other people (ordinary consumers) do not.