Why does expensive wine taste better?

Research has found that price tags influence our taste buds. Wine that is perceived to be expensive supposedly tastes better due to a placebo effect that influences the reward areas in the brain.

Previous studies have shown that people enjoy identical products such as wine or chocolate more when they have a higher price; however, a study published in Scientific Reports aimed to reveal how this works in the brain. The increased expectation of the quality of the product when it is more expensive is known as the ‘marketing placebo effect’.

Scientists from the INSEAD Business School and the University of Bonn tested the impact of price on taste experiences using 30 participants — 15 men and 15 women — with an average age of 30 years old.

Participants were asked to lie down in an MRI scanner to monitor their brain activity while sampling wines. Using average quality red wine, they were shown a random price of €3, €6 or €18 ($4.46, $8.90 or $26.96) for a bottle and administered test tubes of different wines to taste. They were then asked to rate the taste of the wine on a nine-point scale.

In order to make the study as realistic as possible, the participants were given €45 of credit to spend, and in some cases they showed the price being deducted from their account.

“As expected, the subjects stated that the wine with the higher price tasted better than an apparently cheaper one,” stated Professor Hilke Plassmann, INSEAD Associate Professor of Marketing. “However, it was not important whether the participants also had to pay for the wine or whether they were given it for free.”

The brain activity on the MRI scan confirmed that identical wine leads to a better taste experience when the participant has a greater quality expectation caused by price. The medial pre-frontal cortex is involved in the price comparison and expectation of the wine, and the ventral striatum is involved in the brain’s reward systems; both were activated more when prices were higher.

“The reward and motivation system is activated more significantly with higher prices and apparently increases the taste experience in this way,” explained Professor Weber.

Therefore, the reward areas of the brain “play a trick on us” according to INSEAD researcher Liane Schmidt, and despite the wines being identical, the price inevitably influences the perceived taste.

Weber is now interested in using these results to train a person’s physical perception and prevent this bias from happening.

“The exciting question is now whether it is possible to train the reward system to make it less receptive to such placebo marketing effects.”