Basic Pursuits

Anybody who's participated in or witnessed a taste test in a barroom will not be surprised by the conclusion drawn in a recent study. Wine tasters rated those wines highest when they were told that they were the most expensive.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology recently investigated our neural response to these non-intrinsic stimuli. Twenty subjects tasted what they thought were five different wines. They were given the price for each. But in reality, there were only three wines. Two were offered twice, once at an alleged low price and once at a much higher price. And the subjects consistently said they enjoyed what they thought were expensive wines more.

Why not turn this seeming weakness in our powers of discernment to our advantage? You can by gathering the sensofacts of any situation. For example, I've known a lot of people who swear they can't cut back on sugar because of the taste of non-sugar sweeteners. And believe me. Many of these people needed to cut back on sugar.

In my opinion many sweeteners are pretty crappy. I put aspartame at the top of the "avoid entirely list." But there are others that I would choose over sugar for the taste. My favorite is stevia extract, which I use all the time.

It wasn't always that way. For me it used to be sugar or nothing. But now my mind helps. When I think of sugar, I also think of insulin spikes, diabetes, cavities, and empty excess calories. These are most unpleasant mental experiences. When I think of stevia, I think of a natural product and little or no calories. I like that thought better and stevia tastes better. Does it taste better because I think more highly of it than sugar? Well, yeah!

If you're working on stopping something that's bad for you, get the sensofacts in your brain. What are sensofacts? They are the direct experience of your senses when they engage reality. How do you use them? Say you want to quit smoking. Write down all the things that you don't like about smoking and examine the sensofacts of the experience.
For example, you don't like the sore throat you often have as a smoker.

Examine the sensofacts:

• How does the sore throat feel? Feel it in your mind. How does feeling it make you feel inside?
• How does it taste? Tobacco breath. How does that taste make you feel?
• How does it smell? Hands, hair, clothes, sore throat all united in smoke to make your throat sore. How does knowing that make you feel?
• How does it look? Well, you can't see it, but you can imagine what the irritation from the smoke looks like, which is a valid sensofact. Yuck. How does that make you feel?
• What does it sound like? The cough. How does it make you feel?

Keeping listing the mal-effects of smoking and examining the related sensofacts. Your brain will soon start telling you that smoking isn't good.

On the positive side, list the benefits of NOT smoking and examine each with sensofacts. For example, you won't have that foul taste in your mouth.

• What would your mouth taste like without smoking? How does that taste make you feel?
• What would it look like? I see microscopic soot and tar and poisonous nicotine in your mouth that goes away. Of course I'm imagining, but it's a valid sensofact. How would the cleaner mouth make you feel?
• What would it smell like? You won't be paranoid about tobacco-smelling breath any more. That makes you feel better.

Pretty soon, your brain starts telling you that you really prefer not smoking. You might have to do a lot of writing to overcome a powerful addition like cigarette smoking, but using sensofacts, you can get your brain to to do the right thing.

Give it a try.

Price Can Make Wine Taste Better - Scientific American

Photo by A & M

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