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Study: Pricey products trigger happy responses in consumers

January 15, 2008

MSNBC: The more we believe an item is worth, the happier we are with our purchase — at least for a short time, says a study released in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study's participants were hooked up to brain scan machines and instructed to take a sip from five glasses of wine, which ranged from $5 to $90 a bottle. When they were told they were drinking a glass of wine from a $90 bottle, brain scans showed increased activity in the medial orbital frontal cortex, the area of the brain that registers pleasure — even if the person was actually knocking back the price equivalent of two-buck chuck.

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