Our brains respond to brands

[footenote]

"Participants in a study reported they got more pleasure from tasting colas labeled “Coke” and “Pepsi” compared to generic ones. Brain scans revealed they were indeed reacting differently to the drinks on a neural level. This effect was found despite the fact that all the samples consisted of the same beverage.

"The belief that you are drinking a specific brand impacts “neural responses signalling reward in the brain,” researchers Simone Kuhn and Jurgen Gallinat report..."

http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/brands-are-imprinted-on-our-brains-59865/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+miller-mccune%2Fsummary_feed+%28Pacific+Standard+-+Summary+Feed%29

(I have to wonder if Mustachians' brains would light up the fMRI if we had an experiment option to drink tap water instead of branded or generic soda. I sure hope so.)

[matchewed]

I'd be interested in seeing a variable introduced which consisted of individuals who haven't been primed by a lifetime of marketing.

[footenote]

Selling Coke where it's never been sold before:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/06/07/189184092/how-to-sell-coke-to-people-who-have-never-had-a-sip?ft=1&f=93559255

h/t Andrew Sullivan

[Jamesqf]

I'd be interested in seeing a variable introduced which consisted of individuals who haven't been primed by a lifetime of marketing.

Exactly.  Personally, I can't see why anyone would get pleasure out of drinking the stuff.

I wonder, am I the only one who gets pissed off at articles saying "Our Brains" (or our whatever) do such-and-such, as though all brains were stamped from a cookie cutter?  [y]Your[/u] brain may respond positively to drinking cola, but mine doesn't.

[matchewed]

It's just bad science reporting. A good article would state that the brain lights up more when receiving a stimulus which is expected, familiar, and pleasant. Then again the brain is a pretty complicated organ and it's easy to have bad reporting.