Expensive food products seem tastier to customers than the foods sold at the regular price. The experiment, conducted by the scientists with the help of volunteers, showed that the price directly affected the human taste buds.
The project implemented by the experts consisted in asking the volunteers to try four types of alcoholic beverages based on wine. The price of the drinks ranged from 5 to 30 dollars. The study authors note that the selection of wines concealed a deception: in fact, they offered the volunteers to try only two types of wine.
As a result of the volunteers’ responses, they managed to record a clear correlation between the approval of the drink and its cost: according to the responses, the more expensive the wine was, the more delicious it seemed. According to the opinion of the project organizers, this meant that buying a poor quality expensive alcohol the consumer would in any case consider it most delicious.
The dependence of the price on the taste sensation was recorded not only in relation to alcohol. The second phase of the study presupposed asking the participants to taste milk shakes. Just as during the first phase, the volunteers were offered different kinds of cocktails, and almost all the participants expressed a preference for the most expensive option of the drinks, answering in the questionnaire that it was the most delicious one.
Note that the scientists had previously mentioned a special psychological effect, produced by expensive products on people. In their opinion, shoppers tend to overpay for a range of products in the stores, the quality of which was supposed to be correlated with the price. In particular, the food products that cost more included cereals, milk, eggs, bio- and eco-friendly products.
