Perceived Value, Verified
By Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 1/23/2008 11:39:00 AM
Pasadena, CA — The more we believe an item is worth, the happier we are with the purchase, according to a study released in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The effect is independent of how much the item is actually worth. Study participants were hooked up to brain scan machines and told to take a sip from five glasses of wine, ranging in price from $5 to $90 per bottle. When told they were drinking from a $90 bottle, scans showed increased activity in the medial orbital frontal cortex, which registers pleasure — even if they were actually drinking the cheap stuff.Antonio Rangel, the lead author of the study and associate economics professor at California Institute of Technology, told MSNBC, “People believe that more expensive prices are correlated with higher quality. So if you believe something better is happening to you, that affects the way your brain handles the experience.”
But the high doesn’t last long: the brain's pleasure centers only reacted for a few seconds.
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