Nasgp | The Art Of Gp Locuming

Mrs Jones likes blue pills; they work better than those pink ones – even though they are the same drug. But she wouldn’t touch blue mashed potato. Wine buffs rate a wine higher if they believe it is expensive. Consumers are sure that a brand name product is superior to an identical generic, whether it be atenolol or cornflakes. The kids won’t eat burned sausages at home but round a campfire they taste wonderful. Turn on a red light, and your blood pressure and heart rate will increase. We know we are influenced by experience, by context, by sensory input, by our expectations, but most of us don’t realise how open to manipulation our judgments are. Take food. There is an art to creating expectations of food. And a science too. Oxford psychologist Charles Spence’s field is gastrophysics. All our senses are involved in our appreciation of food and drink – not surprising since without them we would not survive. So Spence is investigating how our experience is shaped by our sensory input. A £275 ‘ticket’ (plus dri