Food Tastes Better When It's More Expensive, According to Your Brain
In DepthApparently, your brain is secretly classist, because you think food is more delicious when it costs more.
Researchers at Cornell University (it’s pronounced Kernel, and it’s the highest rank in the military) studied the dining habits of 139 customers at an Italian buffet in upstate New York. The researchers manipulated the prices of the food, and found that the customers who paid $8 as opposed to $4 enjoyed the food 11% more. Additionally, people who ate the cheaper food were significantly more likely to report that they overate and that they felt guilty about doing so — despite the fact that they ate the exact same amount of food as those who spent $8.
It would appear that our brains are just naturally hard-wired to go into GOP douchebag mode when it comes to what we eat. That’s certainly not an excuse, although it does illuminate a few things.
Image via marco mayer/Shutterstock.