(all photos ripped, thanks to Caltech/Stanford)

Apparently, the more wine costs, the better people think it tastes- not just subjectively, but even as viewed through the cool, empirical eye of fMRI and scientific psychology. The neuroimaging data was accompanied by this lovely graph of behavioral data, which demonstrates the researchers in essence turning a $90 bottle of wine into a $10 one. Not, of course, that they probably recruited sommeliers for the study- but that would be a bold next step, of course.

This article crossed my path, and I immediately thought “hey, if it’s true for wine, then… hurm.” And indeed, the researchers themselves say

For example, knowledge of a beer’s ingredients and brand can affect reported taste quality, and the reported enjoyment of a film is influenced by expectations about its quality,”

Well sure, knowledge and expertise in a domain certainly change how you experience things within it, that’s not a huge shock. But does it make sense for price to be one–or the only one–of those factors? Only if you assume that price = quality, and of course, that might have some truth to it, but there is not a perfect correlation. And notice the difference between the BBC and the Bloomberg take on the story- differing attitudes to consumerism certainly separate us and our historical forbearers.

Still, I guess this means that the hops shortage is going to make my Anchor Liberty Ale taste better- but not my homebrew so much.