Turning plonk into fine wine

WINE tastes better if it is thought to be expensive due to a physical change in the brain, a new study shows.

Researchers found that preconceived beliefs created a placebo effect so strong that it changed neural processes.

By packaging cheap wine as a fine vintage, the drinker enjoyed it in exactly the same physical way as if it was far more expensive.

“Studies have shown that people enjoy identical products such as wine or chocolate more if they have a higher price,” said Bernd Webber from the University of Bonn in Germany, who co-authored the study.

“However, almost no research has examined the neural and psychological processes required for such marketing placebo effects to occur.”

Participants in the study, published in the Journal of Marketing, were told they would consume five wines priced variously at £55 (around R1 000), £28, £22, £6 and £3 while their brains were scanned to measure their response. They were actually only given three different wines, with two different price tags.

Another experiment used labels to generate positive or negative expectations of the taste of a milkshake. Some consumed identical milkshakes but thought they would be either organic or regular; others consumed identical milkshakes but thought they would be either light or regular.

Participants in both studies demonstrated significant prejudices in how they rated the taste as well as in their measurable brain activity.