Drunk on Apple Wine

January 15th, 2008 by Tuffy Posted in nonsense |

A study by CalTech and Stanford’s business school suggests the human brain can reach a pleasurable state simply by being told it should:

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford’s business school have directly seen that the sensation of pleasantness that people experience when tasting wine is linked directly to its price. And that’s true even when, unbeknownst to the test subjects, it’s exactly the same Cabernet Sauvignon with a dramatically different price tag.

The authors of this study go on to mention other studies that come to similar conclusions about a correlation between price and pleasure, separate from quality or other critical thought.

hmm. What company best represents this notion in America today? Who could bring cries of “overrated and overpriced” faster than you can say “Skymall catalog”? hmmmm. Could it be… SATAN?!?!?

No, of course not. It’s the company that’s currently making the final calibrations to their signal repeaters for the Reality Distortion Field that only one man can produce: CEO Steve Jobs. Yes, Apple’s big keynote for Macworld is today and all the glowing announcements and shiny pretties will be produced from Apple’s hidden core today.

Let the glee begin!

Now let’s stop for a moment to say that making Big Statements about little studies is a hallmark of sloppy thinking (and most news broadcasts). I do think it’s a cute coincidence, though, because it’s something I often worry about when my Mac fandom gets a little out of control. Like, say, on days like this.

Once the 24-hour period after the keynote passes, though, and my friends give me back my credit cards (be prepared, kids), I can say with some rational thought that I’m never quite as inspired to push the limits of what I can do and what my computers can do for me as when I’m using my Apple products to link my iPhone to my iMac and my PowerBook on the road and so on.

I can usually convince myself that the reasons involve the quality of the products and their ability to work together fairly seamlessly. Likely, I’m even correct about that. Still, I can see there’s a possibility I’m paying for the pride of having the best and price might have a sliver to do with that.

Still, if I’m inspired by the $90 bottle of wine to do better for whatever reason, where’s the harm in a little distortion? Bring another bottle, garçon! And would it hurt you to take off the turtleneck and put on a tie? Slacker.