Even more on pricing...

Further to my post a few weeks back about pricing, a study released yesterday from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the more wine costs, the more people enjoy it -- regardless of how it tastes!

The researchers said that when 20 adult test subjects sampled the same wine at different prices, they reported experiencing pleasure at significantly greater levels when told the wine cost more. At the same time, the part of the brain responsible for pleasure showed significant activity.

via Reuters -- thanks to Donna Murdoch for alerting me to the study...

Comments

[TedC]

This is a great example showing that our minds make our reality, but what happens to that experience after the first let down? Have a few noticeably bad expensive wines and see what happens.

[twang]

There is a famous economic study on this called "beer on the beach" in which consumers sunning themselves on the beach were willing to pay significantly more to purchase a can of beer from a waiter dressed in a jacket and tie than the SAME can of beer from a guy carrying the beers in a cooler. Perception is a huge part of value that a consumer is willing to pay.

[Mary Schmidt]

Some wine snob friends of mine had a red wine tasting. Some people spent a LOT of $. The wine that won the blind taste test was...two buck Chuck from TJs.

And then there are the studies that found blindfolded "experts" couldn't tell the difference between white and red.

Perception trumps reality almost every time (I say "almost' because one of th worst wines I've ever tasted was also one of the most expensive.)