In 2008, scientists wanted to find out how price affects people’s perception of quality.
They recruited 20 volunteers for a wine tasting (can’t imagine how hard that was). I always wondered why I’m never in the right place for this kind of studies.
Anyway…
They served samples of five wines, each priced at:
$5 – $10 – $35 – $45 and $90 per bottle.
As they tasted each wine, the volunteers were asked to score the quality.
No surprise here:
The “$90” wine came out on top, the $45 came second, and so on—down to the humble $5 bottle you’d sneak into a party when you were 18.
But here’s where it gets fun…
There were actually only three wines in the lineup.
One of them (Wine #2) was presented with the $90 tag and the $10 tag.
The verdict?
Volunteers loved the “$90” pour but weren’t impressed with the “$10” version.
The-exact-same-wine.
And it gets even better.
While tasting, the participants had their brains scanned using fMRI.
Result: greater activation in the brain’s pleasure centers when they believed they were drinking the expensive stuff.
In a follow-up round, the scientists removed all price tags.
This time, the volunteers rated the cheapest wine as their favorite 🤣
So the takeaway—and don’t get me wrong here—is simple:
It’s more important to look good than to be good.
Not my opinion.
Pure, peer-reviewed wine science. 🍷