Hate-to-love lesson a real pearler

Modern art ... heavy metal ... other people ... if there are some things you hate that others love, fear not - there's a man who can teach you how to enjoy them.

Professor Peter Goldie, who presented a lecture at the University of Auckland titled "Oysters and opera: how to acquire an acquired taste," believes you can train yourself to like anything.

The Samuel Hall professor of philosophy at the University of Manchester taught himself to like both oysters and opera by faking it until his appreciation became real.

The idea is known as "bootstrapping".

Professor Goldie uses examples of artwork, food and music to explain how we can learn to like things that initially do not appeal.

But, he says, the idea can be applied to anything we don't like immediately - even people.

"We can know things are good without actually appreciating them ourselves and one way we can do it is because other people tell us. So how do you get to like it?

"Constant exposure isn't enough. You've actually got to work at it."

Professor Goldie said training yourself to like food or wine, for example, involved creating an emotion - practising and cultivating positive feelings while pretending to like something and focusing on what is good about it.

People can teach themselves to like art or music by "aesthetic bootstrapping" using the same technique. Eventually, a true appreciation will follow, he says.

But why do you have to try to make yourself like something?

"You don't," he says. "The presumption is you want to like it, you don't, you know it's good because other people tell you in a reliable way, so how do you then get to like it?

"It's not meant to be elitist in the sense that one goes around saying to people, 'You've got to like oysters, you've got to like opera'.

"In the end, you must feel free to reject what other people say."

What is so great about oysters anyway? "They are delicious. If you have a glass of champagne and half a dozen oysters for a quick lunch, you'll be raring to go."

How to 'bootstrap'
1. Put yourself in the right situation - go to the best oyster bar in town and go with a healthy appetite.

2. Pretend to like oysters - the rest will follow.

3. Focus on the right things - what you want it to be like and what you hope it is like, not what you don't like.