Researchers in California have uncovered that Americans are more satisfied by a wine's taste if they know it's more expensive. Antonio Rangel, associate professor of economics at the California Institute of Technology, has analyzed the reactions of 21 volunteers who were presented 15 wines in a random manner, the only information being the price.

Unbeknownst to them, two of the wines were repeated, but presented with different price tags. The researchers also carefully observed changes in a part of the brain known as the medial orbitofrontal cortex, which plays a central role in many types of pleasure.

They found out that test subjects were more pleased by the taste of wines they thought were expensive.

"It's a common belief among scientists and economists that the quality of the experience depends on the properties of the product and the state of the consumer; for example, if a consumer is thirsty or not," said Rangel.

"But what this study shows is that the brain's rewards center takes into account subjective beliefs about the quality of the experience. If you believe that the experience is better, even though it's the same wine, the rewards center of the brain encodes it as feeling better," he said.

As part of the test, a pricey $90 wine was provided marked with its real price and again marked $10, while another wine was presented at its real price of $5 and also marked with a $45 price tag. In both cases, the volunteers thought that the wine was better when the higher price tag was presented.

The interesting study is to be published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.