Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty, Baba Shiv, and Antonio Rangel of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology asked 21 adult volunteers to sample identical bottles of wine presented at different prices and by using [functionalMRI] brain scans they monitored the neural activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex - the area of the brain associated with decision-making and pleasure in terms of flavour.
They found that [for] the more "expensive" wines ......the part of the brain responsible for pleasure showed significant activity .
The authors say it has been known for some time that people's perceptions are affected by marketing, but it can now be seen that the brain itself is affected by price.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0706929105v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=rangel&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=34284
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Qualities are social
15.01.2008 19:21
It also depends on how much labour has been put behind the wine making, not behind it's marketing that makes a lot of difference. A labour intensive, aged, safe, of particular characteristics wine, can well be so expensive and enjoyable to drink.
Salvatore Fiore
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Quality and price
16.01.2008 00:42
It also depends on how much labour has been put behind the wine making, not behind it's marketing that makes a lot of difference. A labour intensive, aged, safe, of particular characteristics wine, can well be so expensive and enjoyable to drink.
Sal Fiore
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http://www.salvatorefiore.com
Get yer old rope here!
16.01.2008 08:50
A prestige product basically carries a price tag that excludes most people from buying it.
Quite often even non prestige products are priced on the basis of "the most we can charge for it" and not cost. The economic delusional euphemism for this pisstake is "demand" or "market forces".
Despondent Respondent