What correlation does being creative and being weird have? If people think you're weird, they're more than likely to appreciate your art. Which is why Lady Gaga is so damn famous.

According to a team of researchers, they wanted to answer the question of what's the relationship between perceived eccentricity and valuation of art. So they conducted a few experiments.

In the first experiment, they surveyed a group's opinion about Van Gogh's famous sunflowers and casually dropped the idea that he cut off his ear. When they mentioned that story, the group seemed to approve of his painting.

Then, researchers asked people to rate art from both eccentric and non-eccentric artists. The eccentrics were rated higher. When presented with fictitious art, the same thing happened: when people thought the "artist" presented to them looked eccentric, the group was more likely to approve of his or her work.

The effect of associating weirdness and good art seems to work with less "conventional art". How do you determine weird from stupid?

Is Shia LaBeouf weird or stupid?

[Improbable Research]