How Price Influences Wine Perception: Are We Being Tricked?

Wine lovers know this well: One of the hardest decisions is getting lost among hundreds of unfamiliar wine bottles on a store shelf and having to rely on your instincts to make a choice. One way to overcome this is to stick to a product you’ve tried before, enjoying the comfort of knowing what you are getting. However, this comes at the cost of missing out on a new flavor that you might discover and love.

Our approach is to make experiencing wines an essential part of the process. This is the philosophy behind WAYANA’s commitment to serving all its products by the glass. Don’t let your choice be a surprise—get to know the taste first, then continue if you like it. However, this kind of service isn’t available when buying wine at stores or supermarkets, as they are not equipped to offer such an experience. In those situations, the solution comes down to the intersection of your instincts and the amount of money you are willing to spend.

Research led by Hilke Plassmann at INSEAD Business School sheds light on how price labels can shape our perception of wine. This study explores the "marketing placebo effect", where a product is perceived as higher quality based solely on its price. Let’s dive into the details of this fascinating experiment and its implications for wine lovers.

The Setup: How the Experiment Worked

The study involved 30 participants (15 men and 15 women) who tasted wine while lying down in an MRI machine. Although participants were given the exact same wine each time, it was labeled with different prices—3, 6, and 18 euros. After tasting each sample, participants rated the wine on a nine-point scale.

The results were striking: Participants consistently rated the same wine as more flavorful and enjoyable when it was labeled with a higher price. Interestingly, this effect occurred even when participants did not have to pay for the wine themselves, suggesting that perceived value impacts sensory experience directly.

How the Brain Interprets Price

MRI scans revealed heightened activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum when participants believed they were drinking more expensive wine. These regions play key roles in integrating expectations and managing reward and motivation. The increased neural activity shows how price-based expectations trick the brain into perceiving a better taste, even when the product remains identical.

The study highlights how our brain’s reward system can be manipulated by marketing cues, leading us to believe that a higher price equates to a superior product. This is comparable to the placebo effect in medicine, where patient expectations influence the outcome of treatment.

Can We Train Ourselves to Resist the Effect?

An intriguing discussion point from the study is whether we can train the brain to reduce susceptibility to price cues. According to Bernd Weber, one of the researchers from the University of Bonn, improving our ability to identify and appreciate authentic sensory experiences could weaken this placebo effect over time. This suggests that conscious, mindful tasting practices may help us make more rational evaluations, independent of price influence.

Takeaway: Mind the Marketing Tricks

Hilke Plassmann's research offers critical insights into consumer behavior and the power of marketing strategies. The results remind us to be aware of how price labels might alter our experiences. Next time you pick a bottle of wine, consider whether it’s the label or the actual taste that influences your choice.

Sometimes, true quality lies not in the price tag but in the experience itself.