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Research Why expensive wine supposedly tastes much better
The fact that identical products are valued differently due to higher prices has long been known as the "marketing placebo effect". The price unfolds only through the attributes attributed to it an effect: "quality has its price". What exactly happens in our brain, however, was previously unknown. A research team from the INSEAD Business School and the University of Bonn wanted to know and sent 30 study participants to the MRI.
Some people claim that one glass of red wine a day protects against certain diseases. On the other hand, regular consumption of alcohol damages your health. So what's up with the tip? (Image: Syda Productions / fotolia.com) The wine tasting while lying - using a tube - was performed on the brain scanner of the Life & Brain Center at the University of Bonn. "As expected, the subjects said that the wine tastes better with the higher price than a seemingly cheaper," said Professor Hilke Plassmann from the INSEAD Business School.
What showed up in the tube: At higher prices, the frontal brain as well as the ventral striatum were activated more strongly. While the frontal brain appears to be involved in price comparison and anticipation, the ventral striatum is part of the reward and motivation system. "The reward system is activated much more strongly at higher prices and thus clearly enhances the taste experience," interprets Professor Bernd Weber of the Center for Economics and Neuroscience (CENs) of the University of Bonn, the results. Luckily, the marketing placebo effect also has its limits: "If, for example, a porridge were offered for EUR 100, this effect would be foreseeable," says Weber.
For consumer information, the exciting question is how to become less receptive to such placebo effects. Maybe through a taste training. But perhaps even the mere insight into the knowledge that the price as a quality criterion can beat our reward system a trick.
Rüdiger Lobitz, bzfe