202). Vinegar, typically regarded as unpleasant to taste, caused students in the experiment to stereotype the altered beer as distasteful when they knew about the vinegar before having taken their first sip. However, without knowledge of the addition to the beer, students overwhelmingly preferred the altered beer. They didn’t have the knowledge to form a stereotype or expectation for the taste beyond beer, and so they were able to enjoy the balsamic vinegar beer more than the unaltered beer because the perception that their brain gave them wasn’t altered by the stereotype of distasteful vinegar. The altered beer experiment is one that showcases how true reality can be affected and altered into a distorted reality in our minds by our expectations. By the time the information about the taste of the balsamic beer had been processed by the students whom knew about the vinegar, they had applied the expectation of distastefulness to it and thus disliked the taste. Alternatively, the students who didn’t know about the balsamic vinegar didn’t process the beer through any filters other than their taste buds and therefore found the taste more palatable (Ariely, 2009, p. 203). Perception of the reality of the taste of the altered beer was affected by the knowledge of the beer’s ingredients. The taste of the beer with balsamic vinegar didn’t change by students’ knowing it contained balsamic vinegar, but the students’ opinions of the beer did
202). Vinegar, typically regarded as unpleasant to taste, caused students in the experiment to stereotype the altered beer as distasteful when they knew about the vinegar before having taken their first sip. However, without knowledge of the addition to the beer, students overwhelmingly preferred the altered beer. They didn’t have the knowledge to form a stereotype or expectation for the taste beyond beer, and so they were able to enjoy the balsamic vinegar beer more than the unaltered beer because the perception that their brain gave them wasn’t altered by the stereotype of distasteful vinegar. The altered beer experiment is one that showcases how true reality can be affected and altered into a distorted reality in our minds by our expectations. By the time the information about the taste of the balsamic beer had been processed by the students whom knew about the vinegar, they had applied the expectation of distastefulness to it and thus disliked the taste. Alternatively, the students who didn’t know about the balsamic vinegar didn’t process the beer through any filters other than their taste buds and therefore found the taste more palatable (Ariely, 2009, p. 203). Perception of the reality of the taste of the altered beer was affected by the knowledge of the beer’s ingredients. The taste of the beer with balsamic vinegar didn’t change by students’ knowing it contained balsamic vinegar, but the students’ opinions of the beer did