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“Quality has its price!” – this slogan is already firmly entrenched in the minds of many people. If the same wine is bottled in different price categories, consumers will prefer the more expensive product.
Scientists call this phenomenon the “market placebo effect”. It was identified in the course of multiple studies. A new confirmation came from a recent experiment in which it was found that more expensive energy drinks have a better effect on the ability to focus than cheaper ones, although they actually have the same composition.
Bernd Weber from the Center for Economics and Neuroscience at the University of Bonn (Germany) and Hilke Plassmann from the INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau (France) looked into why some shoppers are more influenced by price and brand than others. They concluded that the predisposition to such influence depends on the structure of the brain.
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Scientists invited volunteers to participate in a survey in which they had to choose between the same wine with different prices. Participants also had to say which wine tastes better. After that, they were checked on a tomograph to find out the parameters of various areas of the brain.
It turned out that the placebo market effect correlates with the size of the striatum, anterior cortex, and insular lobe. The striatum is the part of the brain that is responsible for reactions to praise, the anterior cortex is associated with rational thinking, and the insular lobe is associated with the implementation of bodily functions.
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The likelihood of a placebo market effect also depends on personal characteristics. For instance, the more actively your brain reacts to praise, the more likely it will be guided by artificially created expectations. This applies (surprisingly!) to people who invest money rationally. Those who, on the contrary, rely on sensory perception, are more resistant to the influence of prices in the liquor store.
“It remains to be seen how much this trait depends on the circumstances,” says Bernd Weber. The size of areas of the brain can change under the influence of the learning process, for example, juggling. “Our results do not mean that certain consumers are born with a greater exposure to this effect. It depends on the circumstances,” adds Hilke Plassmann.
The researchers decided to use these findings for medical purposes. They will have to figure out whether certain medications prescribed for psychosis and depression can cause shopaholism as a side effect. “It is interesting to find out the relationship between the likelihood of a placebo market effect, personality traits and brain structure,” sums up Bernd Weber.
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