Begging To Spend More Money {Cultural Notes - Luxury}

An article in the New York Times tells us about the Peacock kitchen and touches on topics related to the sensual pleasures of smelling, tasting, and touching, citing Clive Christian en passant and a study showing that spending more - or rather in this case being told you are drinking a more expensive wine while drinking in reality a cheap one - is all that really matters (please apply to perfume),

"Tellingly, the high cost of certain products, as Mr. Pedraza of the Luxury Institute pointed out, might boost sales. Mr. Pedraza cited a recent study by researchers at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology which mapped the brains of volunteers as they drank red wine. Though the wine offered was the same cheap plonk ($5 a bottle), the pleasure receptors of the brains of the study group lit up more when the subjects were told the price was $45. “Knowing you are able to pay for the best is a very special thing, and it gives you real endorphins,” he said."

And Now The Six-Figure Scullery...