Get better sound, ask your dealer to increase price

Get better sound, ask your dealer to increase price

http :// www .eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/du-cpw022908.php

Costly placebo works better than cheap one

DURHAM, N.C. -- A 10-cent pill doesn't kill pain as well as a $2.50
pill, even when they are identical placebos, according to a
provocative study by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke
University.

"Physicians want to think it's the medicine and not their enthusiasm
about a particular drug that makes a drug more therapeutically
effective, but now we really have to worry about the nuances of
interaction between patients and physicians," said Ariely, whose
findings appear as a letter in the March 5 edition of the Journal of
the American Medical Association.

snip

The results fit with existing data about how people perceive quality
and how they anticipate therapeutic effects, he said. But what's
interesting is the combination of the price-sensitive consumer
expectation with the well-known placebo effect of being told a pill
works. "The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating, least
harnessed forces in the universe," Ariely said.

This reminds me of the tests done where two bits of audio gear were in
clear sight and the tester announced which one was being used in each
part of the test. In fact only one was used at all times but price and
expectation clearly drove the unambiguous subjective narrative about
which was which and the obvious audio reproduction of one over the
other.

Re: Get better sound, ask your dealer to increase price

In article <fqnmer021al@news2.newsguy,com >, <wrct@club.cc.cmu.edu>
wrote:

> http :// www .eurekalert.org/pub releases/2008-03/du-cpw022908.php
>
> Costly placebo works better than cheap one
>
> DURHAM, N.C. -- A 10-cent pill doesn't kill pain as well as a $2.50
> pill, even when they are identical placebos, according to a
> provocative study by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke
> University.
>
> "Physicians want to think it's the medicine and not their enthusiasm
> about a particular drug that makes a drug more therapeutically
> effective, but now we really have to worry about the nuances of
> interaction between patients and physicians," said Ariely, whose
> findings appear as a letter in the March 5 edition of the Journal of
> the American Medical Association.
>
> snip
>
> The results fit with existing data about how people perceive quality
> and how they anticipate therapeutic effects, he said. But what's
> interesting is the combination of the price-sensitive consumer
> expectation with the well-known placebo effect of being told a pill
> works. "The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating, least
> harnessed forces in the universe," Ariely said.
>
> This reminds me of the tests done where two bits of audio gear were in
> clear sight and the tester announced which one was being used in each
> part of the test. In fact only one was used at all times but price and
> expectation clearly drove the unambiguous subjective narrative about
> which was which and the obvious audio reproduction of one over the
> other.

And how about this study of wine tasting, where MRI images were done on
wine tasters showing that they actually enjoy the wine more if they
think it is expensive.

< http :// www .mercurynews,com /news/ci 7981068>
< http :// www .news,com /8301-13580 3-9849949-39.html>

As a result of this study, I think people who want to spend $4000 for a
set of speaker cables are entirely justified in doing so, as they will
then enjoy the sound coming from their speakers. :)

--
Jim Gibson

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Re: Get better sound, ask your dealer to increase price

"Jim Gibson" <jimsgibson@gmail,com > wrote in message
news:fqpqev0q03@news5.newsguy,com ...
> In article <fqnmer021al@news2.newsguy,com >, <wrct@club.cc.cmu.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> http :// www .eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/du-cpw022908.php
>>
>> Costly placebo works better than cheap one
>>
>> DURHAM, N.C. -- A 10-cent pill doesn't kill pain as well as a $2.50
>> pill, even when they are identical placebos, according to a
>> provocative study by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke
>> University.
>>
>> "Physicians want to think it's the medicine and not their enthusiasm
>> about a particular drug that makes a drug more therapeutically
>> effective, but now we really have to worry about the nuances of
>> interaction between patients and physicians," said Ariely, whose
>> findings appear as a letter in the March 5 edition of the Journal of
>> the American Medical Association.
>>
>> snip
>>
>> The results fit with existing data about how people perceive quality
>> and how they anticipate therapeutic effects, he said. But what's
>> interesting is the combination of the price-sensitive consumer
>> expectation with the well-known placebo effect of being told a pill
>> works. "The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating, least
>> harnessed forces in the universe," Ariely said.
>>
>> This reminds me of the tests done where two bits of audio gear were in
>> clear sight and the tester announced which one was being used in each
>> part of the test. In fact only one was used at all times but price and
>> expectation clearly drove the unambiguous subjective narrative about
>> which was which and the obvious audio reproduction of one over the
>> other.
>
> And how about this study of wine tasting, where MRI images were done on
> wine tasters showing that they actually enjoy the wine more if they
> think it is expensive.
>
> < http :// www .mercurynews,com /news/ci_7981068>
> < http :// www .news,com /8301-13580_3-9849949-39.html>
>
> As a result of this study, I think people who want to spend $4000 for a
> set of speaker cables are entirely justified in doing so, as they will
> then enjoy the sound coming from their speakers. :)

Eliot Spitzer spent $4,000... Did he really get more than if he had paid
$100?

It is true that the human being is influenced by value. When you know that a
pair of speakers or an amplifier cost more than another one, your expect to
hear something better. It's all psychological.