Can balsamic vinegar make beer better?

In 2007, two Harvard researchers added a splash of balsamic vinegar to beer.

When drinkers knew the beer contained vinegar, they hated it.

But when the researchers told them “this is our MIT brew," the majority loved it.

The study reveals the secrets behind marketing.

On today’s episode of Nudge with award-winning science writer David Robson, we explain how good marketing can shape our perception.

Link to the bonus episode: ⁠https://nudge.kit.com/86d3e39845⁠

Become an FSB member: https://get.fsb.org.uk/nudge/

Read the Expectation Effect: https://amzn.to/4dvkb3s

David’s website: https://davidrobson.me/

David’s Substack: https://davidarobson.substack.com/

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Today’s sources:

Amar, M., Ariely, D., Bar-Hillel, M., Carmon, Z., & Ofir, C. (2011). Brand names act like marketing placebos. Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Clark, A. (2016). Surfing uncertainty: Prediction, action, and the embodied mind. Oxford University Press.

Crum, A. J., & Langer, E. J. (2007). Mind-set matters: Exercise and the placebo effect. Psychological Science, 18(2), 165–171.

Faasse, K., Martin, L.R., Grey, A., Gamble, G., and Petrie, K.J. (2016). Impact of brand or generic labeling on medication effectiveness and side effects. Health Psychology, 35(2), 187.

Grabenhorst, F., Rolls, E. T., & Bilderbeck, A. (2008). How cognition modulates affective responses to taste and flavor: Top-down influences on the orbitofrontal and pregenual cingulate cortices. Cerebral Cortex, 18(7), 1549–1559.

Lee, L., Frederick, S., & Ariely, D. (2006). Try it, you'll like it: The influence of expectation, consumption, and revelation on preferences for beer. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1054–1058.

Lidstone, S. C., Schulzer, M., Dinelle, K., Mak, E., Sossi, V., Ruth, T. J., & Stoessl, A. J. (2010). Effects of expectation on placebo-induced dopamine release in Parkinson disease. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(8), 857–865.

Plassmann, H., O'Doherty, J., Shiv, B., & Rangel, A. (2008). Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(3), 1050–1054.

Quattrone, A., Barbagallo, G., Cerasa, A., & Stoessl, A. J. (2018). Neurobiology of placebo effect in Parkinson's disease: What we have learned and where we are going. Movement Disorders, 33(8), 1213–1227.

Robson, D. (2022). The expectation effect: How your mindset can transform your life. Canongate.

Spence, C., & Piqueras-Fiszman, B. (2014). The perfect meal: The multisensory science of food and dining. John Wiley & Sons.