Ok. :) If the crush isn’t an EA, I probably would mainly think of her as “my friend’s crush”, though with some curiosity about her career and other attributes. If the crush is an EA, I would be more curious about the other aspects of her (such as wondering what field she works in), though you’re right that “my friend’s crush” would still be a main way to think of her until I learned more.
What I was getting at with my comment was that even merely being a friend’s crush can increase the salience of the person in general, making it more likely I would learn more information about her, including her personality and career pursuits. So my total amount of knowledge about her achievements would be higher than otherwise. And in some cases, people who started out interested in someone for superficial reasons may come to be primarily interested in the less superficial parts. TV Tropes gives this example:
This show with the cute lead character actually has an interesting side character with an in-depth story that you’re really getting into. [...] you end up really liking the show/movie/book/game/etc for a reason completely different from why you started to check it out.
Traditionally, this is even how many people approach dating: starting with superficial attraction to someone and then coming to like them on a deeper level. (Personally I think that if you ultimately want the deeper level in a relationship, it’s better to directly search for someone who is a good match in that regard. But this is a bit of a tangent.)
Of course, there will be some people who only ever notice the superficial level and don’t explore deeper, but I still think the total amount of deeper knowledge about something tends to be higher when there’s more superficial attention to it. There might be some exceptions where if something is perceived as too gaudy, then serious thinkers may be deterred from engaging with it to avoid appearing low-brow. For example, PETA’s old marketing tactics using nudity might make some elites less likely to engage with animal-rights philosophy for fear of appearing unserious.
Ok. :) If the crush isn’t an EA, I probably would mainly think of her as “my friend’s crush”, though with some curiosity about her career and other attributes. If the crush is an EA, I would be more curious about the other aspects of her (such as wondering what field she works in), though you’re right that “my friend’s crush” would still be a main way to think of her until I learned more.
What I was getting at with my comment was that even merely being a friend’s crush can increase the salience of the person in general, making it more likely I would learn more information about her, including her personality and career pursuits. So my total amount of knowledge about her achievements would be higher than otherwise. And in some cases, people who started out interested in someone for superficial reasons may come to be primarily interested in the less superficial parts. TV Tropes gives this example:
Traditionally, this is even how many people approach dating: starting with superficial attraction to someone and then coming to like them on a deeper level. (Personally I think that if you ultimately want the deeper level in a relationship, it’s better to directly search for someone who is a good match in that regard. But this is a bit of a tangent.)
Of course, there will be some people who only ever notice the superficial level and don’t explore deeper, but I still think the total amount of deeper knowledge about something tends to be higher when there’s more superficial attention to it. There might be some exceptions where if something is perceived as too gaudy, then serious thinkers may be deterred from engaging with it to avoid appearing low-brow. For example, PETA’s old marketing tactics using nudity might make some elites less likely to engage with animal-rights philosophy for fear of appearing unserious.