Posted
Jan 15 2008, 11:23 AM
by
Karen Datko
A recent study involving wine-tasting in California seems to confirm our worst fears about the power of marketing. Bloomberg.com reports that not only did volunteers overwhelmingly prefer wines they had been told were more expensive (when they weren't), but brain scans confirmed that they got more pleasure from the supposedly pricier wines. The Bloomberg headline seems appropriate: "Brain scans reveal secret to tastier wine: Jack up the prices."
People in the test group were occasional wine drinkers. The results were similar when people who are knowledgeable about wine participated. This gets even worse: In a follow-up to the experiment, most people picked the $5 wine as their favorite when they weren't told about cost.
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