Old-fashioned cost-conscious consumers would react to a price increase by lowering demand for the product, but we sometimes do just the opposite. We want to buy more of it because we assume it must be a better product — and we’re so thoroughly fooled that our bodies even respond differently to it.

wine they’re tasting costs $90 a bottle, then the reward centers of their brains will light up more than if you tell them it’s a $10 bottle.

But suppose, instead of scanning people’s brains as they’re sipping wine in a laboratory, you tested them in a more realistic situation: a restaurant where they’re spending their own money

But after three months of testing various combinations of prices, the researchers found they couldn’t sway the customers. Putting a higher price on the shrimp or any other entree didn’t make people more likely to order it.