$90 wine tastes better than the same wine at $10...?
 

Study: $90 wine tastes better than the same wine at $10

http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9849949-39.html?tag=nefd.pop

In a study that could make marketing managers and salespeople rub their hands with glee, scientists have used brain-scanning technology to shed new light on the old adage, "You get what you pay for."

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford's business school have directly seen that the sensation of pleasantness that people experience when tasting wine is linked directly to its price. And that's true even when, unbeknownst to the test subjects, it's exactly the same Cabernet Sauvignon with a dramatically different price tag.

Specifically, the researchers found that with the higher priced wines, more blood and oxygen is sent to a part of the brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex, whose activity reflects pleasure. Brain scanning using a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) showed evidence for the researchers' hypothesis that "changes in the price of a product can influence neural computations associated with experienced pleasantness," they said.

The study, by Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty, Baba Shiv, and Antonio Rangel, was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



This chart shows that people ranked taste of a $45 wine higher than the same wine priced at $5, and the same for a different wine marked $90 and $10.

(Credit: CalTech, Stanford)
The research, along with other studies the authors allude to, are putting a serious dent in economists' notions that experienced pleasantness of a product is based on its intrinsic qualities.


"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. For example, knowledge of a beer's ingredients and brand can affect reported taste quality, and the reported enjoyment of a film is influenced by expectations about its quality," the researchers said. "Even more intriguingly, changing the price at which an energy drink is purchased can influence the ability to solve puzzles."



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Ok, that's just bizarre, especially that last paragraph. The cross-applicable Porsche content is whether or not we enjoy our cars more simply because they're more expensive. I mean, with all the quirckiness inherent in these nutty P-cars, you'd think we'd get sick and tired of them. But we don't -- we instead revere the differences that make our cars ... "unique." I wonder how much of that is simply because they're expensive?

Dan

Very interesting indeed. Basically our brain is rationalizing at the unconscious level the purchase of an expensive item...

And there is no denying the subject did feel the wine tasted better when more expensive. Fascinating.

So 930s are more pleasurable to drive than 911s, a 72S more than a 74...

Thanks for posting it

928: There is no substitute!

Really, though, unless you are a connoiseur...I suspect that cheap Chianti from the local Publix would hold up in a blindfold taste test against expensive wines. It's not like beer- bad stuff like Milwaukee's Best always tastes horrid, whereas Stella Artois always tastes good.

N

Hmm, I believe this result. But I'll bet it can be related to other factors as well.

When I have a glass of a familiar "table" wine I typically drink without giving much thought to its attributes. The other night, at dinner, a friend offered some homemade Merlot (price not mentioned). When I took the first few sips all senses were on alert. It turned out to be a very good drink......or maybe it wasn't as good as I thought. :)

Love the researcher's name....Baba Shiv.

I got into a similar discussion with my g/f when she tried to explain how a $1200 purse is better than a $40 purse

If the 911 was called a Pinto and it was made by Ford, I would have a Ford Pinto sitting in the carport right now......

mmmmmmm. "Two Buck Chuck"!!!!!!

I'm not much of a drinker...but I'll have a glass to be social ;)

I've been doing my part to rid the earth of excess wine for years now. There are lots of great $10-$15 bottles that will stand up very well against some $50+ bottles. However once you drop down into the $5-$7 range you will definitely notice a difference in taste.

$2 Chuck from Trader Joes - dont' touch the stuff - hangover city.

I have to say that a similar thought crossed my mind - there has to be something else going on here.

If the people know which wine was the supposed $90 bottle I am sure that they will be paying more attention to it to try to taste the difference. I can see that by doing this they might pick up things that they wouldn't normally notice if they were sloshing back a $10 wine without thinking about it.

always a danger when science tries to explain aesthetics

How about a $20 hooker vs a $100 one?
Jim

Would there be a difference if they bottle looked more expensive?
Or the way it was presented?

I try to stick within the $40 dollar limit. I've done the $400 bottles and I have to admit that my poor untrained taste buds did not do the bottles any justice. While my buddies savored every last drop.

Oh well ...

My marketing prof always said "Perception is Reality".

I find water that I have to pay for taste worst than water I get out of my tap in the Pacific NW.

this one is interesting though...

"Even more intriguingly, changing the price at which an energy drink is purchased can influence the ability to solve puzzles."

I wonder if there's an Emperor's New Clothing connection here: "I just spent $400 on this bottle of wine, I had better be able to taste a difference, even if I have to subconsciously imagine it." Sometimes when I read reviews on expensive wines, where they're talking about "hint of blueberry" whether or not they're just making it all up. I wonder how much of the wine culture is just perception about the perceived classiness of being able to differentiate between a crap wine and a good wine?

I'm with you on that last paragraph, alf -- the idea that people would be better at solving puzzles if they thought they had spent more on the energy drink is ... surprising. I'm only a little surprised that people think an expensive wine tastes better than a cheap one. I'm shocked to find that people get a placebo effect from expensive energy drinks.