Don’t ignore the charm of contrast

CHOI HOON
The author is a professor at Hallym University.

Summer is the season of cold soybean noodle soup. I visited a restaurant known for a long wait. Waiting may be the best seasoning for a delicious meal. Finally, I sat down and waited for the soybean noodle soup. As the kimchi on the table looked so good, I ate it right away. But I felt something wrong with the kimchi.

The taste of monosodium glutamate (MSG) was so strong that my tongue ached. I didn’t have a problem with using MSG on food, but I was disappointed because it was just too much. I was then served the noodle soup. My expectations has already disappeared, but I started to eat anyway. Then, surprisingly, the tangy and harsh taste of kimchi amplified the nutty taste of the soybean noodles. Ah, that’s why this restaurant is so famous. The harsh kimchi taste was a part of the plan.

Emphasizing differences by comparing opposites is called “contrast” in psychology. It can be found frequently around us. In Japan, people eat watermelons with salt. The salt helps intensify the sweetness of the watermelon. As visual contrast is also very effective, the green water parsley on a red monkfish stew highlights spiciness visually.

Meanwhile, contrast also brings positive effects when judging a person’s charm. A person who is perfect in every way is generally more attractive than someone who makes mistakes all the time. But people find someone — who’s very competent yet occasionally makes mistakes — more charming. The occasional mistakes make competency stand out more. Geniuses often have brilliant minds in their fields but are clumsy in other areas. It will be easy to understand if you think of Park Bo-gum’s character — a genius Go player — in tvN’s hit drama series “Reply 1988.”

A shortcoming can make people feel insecure and stressful. We want to hide it. But we don’t have to cling to our shortcomings too much. We can make ourselves stand out more by contrasting weaknesses and strengths.