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Author Topic: Paying for pleasure  (Read 1729 times)  Share 

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jess3254

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Paying for pleasure
« on: July 11, 2008, 08:26:31 pm »
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Scientific American MIND, issue 38
Page 12

"Neuroeconomics: Paying for pleasure
Wine tastes better when we think it costs more money.
Do we get more when we pay more? A new study suggests we do - our brain seems to equate price with pleasure. Twenty volunteers had their brains scanned using functional MRI (fMRI) while they tasted five supposedly different cabernet sauvignons, each identified by a different price. In fact, there were only three different wines, two of which were presented twice, once at a high price and once at a low price.

The trick worked as expected. The volunteers rated the wines according to their stated price: the "cheapest" tasted cheap, and the most "expensive" was everybody's favourite. But not only did the wine tasters report liking the pricier choices better, they also showed an increased in activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, an area of the brain that previous studies suggest might encode for the pleasantness of an experience.

Changing expectation by changing a marketing variable such as price can have a measurable effect on pleasure-related brain activity, says Antonio Rangel of the California Institute of Technology, an author of the study. But take note, marketers: the recipe may not be so easy - after all, now consumers know the trick"

-Graciela Flores

Daniel08

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Re: Paying for pleasure
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2008, 08:28:24 pm »
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Placebo effect? lol
07' Legal studies 37 (36.80)

08' Business 44 (42)
     Psycholoy 44 (43.80) ---A+ on midyear!!!
     Australian History 42 (42)
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asdf

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Re: Paying for pleasure
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2008, 04:44:03 pm »
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Placebo effect? lol

lol how is there any placebo affect they are controlled by the other drink which is low is low in price but actually the same...
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Daniel08

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Re: Paying for pleasure
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2008, 06:50:27 pm »
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Placebo effect? lol

lol how is there any placebo affect they are controlled by the other drink which is low is low in price but actually the same...

Well because of the price they 'had more pleasure' so they expected it to taste better because of the price..
07' Legal studies 37 (36.80)

08' Business 44 (42)
     Psycholoy 44 (43.80) ---A+ on midyear!!!
     Australian History 42 (42)
     English 37 (36)
     Economics 30 (32)

Enter Aim= 90+

asdf

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Re: Paying for pleasure
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2008, 11:24:51 pm »
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Placebo effect? lol

lol how is there any placebo affect they are controlled by the other drink which is low is low in price but actually the same...

Well because of the price they 'had more pleasure' so they expected it to taste better because of the price..



i guess you are correct in that sense, but really without that then what is the experiment even testing?
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jess3254

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Re: Paying for pleasure
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2008, 09:25:59 pm »
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i guess you are correct in that sense, but really without that then what is the experiment even testing?

Although this is a rather small study, they are investigating whether individuals automatically think something is of a better quality (or gourmet) if the price is set high, and think something's quality is poor if the price is very low, even after tasting this aforementioned product (so, their tastebuds are deceived as well).

I just thought it was a nice little interesting (yet superficial) study to post.