When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Switzerland

Neuromarketing: How The Price Of A Wine Can Influence Its Taste

Looks delicious!
Looks delicious!
Ann Kato

GENEVA – Chances are that at least once in your life you've found yourself at a restaurant, sitting next to someone who claims to know everything about wine.

They usually hold their glass up toward the light to see the color of the wine, talk about tannins, grape variety, soil quality... Of course, the most expensive wine always seems to be the best one.

But recently, several studies have shown that the price itself of a wine can actually influence its taste.

In 2001, Frederic Brochet carried out two experiments at the University of Bordeaux. In one of them, he got 54 oenology students together and had them taste a glass of red wine, and a glass of white wine. They described each wine with as many details as they could. What Brochet did not tell them was that both glasses were actually the same wine. He had simply dyed the white wine red – which did not affect its taste. In the second experiment, he asked experts to assess the quality of two bottles of red wine. One was very expensive, the other one was cheap. Once again, he had tricked them, filling both bottles with the cheap wine. So, what were the results?

During the first experiment, with the dyed wine, the tasters described all sorts of berries, grapes and tannins in the red wine, just as if it was really red. None of the 54 students could tell the wine was actually white. In the second experiment, with the switched labels, the students gave lengthy descriptions of the cheap wine in the expensive bottle. They used adjectives such as “complex and full-bodied,” whereas they described the same wine, in the cheap bottle, as “weak and flat.”

Hooked on pleasure

In a more recent experiment, carried out at California Tech Institute, five bottles of wine ranging from $5 to $90 were compared. The experiment was simple: there were actually only three different wines, two of which had been used twice, in both cheap and expensive bottles. But this time, researchers hooked the test subjects to a brain scanner. While tasting the wine, the same parts of the brain would light up every time, but when tasters thought the wine was expensive, a particular area of the brain was more active.

This research showed that there is a specific area in the prefrontal cortex of the brain that is responsible for feelings of pleasure. The second study shows that changing the price of the wine can increase the activity of brain circuits in this area. These results are extremely relevant for the new field of “neuromarketing.” Several other studies have raised interest among researchers and companies. Some time in the not-so-distant future, it will become possible to analyze perfume, soap, films and music through the circuits of your brain.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Geopolitics

Why The World Still Needs U.S. Leadership — With An Assist From China

Twenty years of costly interventions and China's economic ascent have robbed the United States of its global supremacy. It is time for the two biggest powers to work together, to help the world.

Photograph of Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden walking side by side in the Filoli Estate in the U.S. state of California​

Nov. 15, 2023: Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden take a walk after their talks in the Filoli Estate in the U.S. state of California

Xinhua/ZUMA
María Ángela Holguín*

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — The United States is facing a complex moment in its history, as it loses its privileged place in the world. Since the Second World War, it has been the world's preeminent power in economic and political terms, helping rebuild Europe after the war and through its growing economy, aiding the development of a significant part of the world.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

Its model of democracy, long considered exemplary around the world, has gone through a rough patch, thanks to excessive polarization and discord. This has cost it a good deal of its leadership, unity and authority.

How much authority does it have to chide certain countries on democracy, as it does, after such outlandish incidents as the assault on Congress in January 2021? The fights we have seen over electing a new speaker of the House of Representatives or backing the administration's foreign policy are simply incredible.

In Ukraine's case, President Biden failed to win support for the aid package for which he was hoping, even if there is a general understanding that if Russia wins this war, Europe's stability would be at risk. It would mean the victory of a longstanding enemy.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest