Study: Heavier the price tag, better the taste

Our tastes are manipulated by our outlook, according to a recent research which claims that the higher the cost of a wine; the more it is enjoyed by people. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have shown that the pleasure of drinking wine can be heightened simply if the drinkers are told that it is an expensive one.

20 adult test subjects volunteered to sample the same wine at different prices; they reported experiencing pleasure at significantly greater levels when told the wine is more expensive.

The volunteers, in a number of cases, were not told the real price. In one instance, they were given two identical red wines to drink and were told that one was far expensive than the other. Majority described the ‘higher priced’ wine as much more enjoyable.

Researchers also managed to fob off a $90 (£46) bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as a $10 bottle and presented a $5 as one worth $45.

The effect is not only psychological. The brains of the volunteers were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) and it was found that changes in the price of a product can influence neural computations associated with experienced pleasantness.

The study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says that expectations of quality trigger activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain that registers pleasure. With expensive wines more blood and oxygen is transported to that area which provides more contentment. This happens even though the part of our brain that interprets taste is not affected.

"Contrary to the basic assumptions of economics, several studies have provided behavioral evidence that marketing actions can successfully affect experienced pleasantness by manipulating nonintrinsic attributes of goods," the researchers said.

“Intriguingly,” they added, “changing the price at which an energy drink is purchased can influence the ability to solve puzzles.”

Previously, various studies have looked at how marketing affects behavior; it is revealed for the first time that marketing has a direct effect on the brain. The sales people and marketing managers should be delighted.