You can measure a person's expertise by the quality of criticism.

[CreamCat]

An amateur dispenses negative criticisms and cannot differentiate work from survival and reproductive instincts. An amateur also doesn't differentiate actuality from fiction. An amateur also suffers from dunning-kruger effect and thus believes one's opinions are absolutely correct.

For example, an amateur may say this movie or this book is shitty because it seems racist although the work itself is a great piece of art.

An expert gives constructive feedbacks and knows difference between art and survival/reproductive instincts. An expert is humble and doesn't believe one's opinions are absolutely correct.

A piece of art can go against your survival instincts by depicting bullying. But, that's a good bullying. An expert talks about how good the bullying was and the nuances of bullying. An amateur talks about how shitty it is just because it depicts bullying.

Art transcends survival and reproduction. A piece of art can go against your reproductive instincts by depicting castration.

Edited April 19, 2019 by CreamCat

[Andreas]

Nice! This insight should be useful for analysing social conflicts.