Order matters. Remember the finding (from my Consumer Perception and Cognition Lab at Brock University) where we showed that people were biased to select the first wine they tasted as their favourite? This is called the Primacy Effect. 

 

In a study just published (January, 2025), judges for a cooking competition show – experts by all accounts – were shown to be susceptible to the primacy effect too. Expert judges were found to be biased to favour the dish that they tasted first, replicating my earlier results with wine. Primacy effects (the bias to prefer the first option tasted) are more common than we think! This factor (order) could impact your wine selections too.

 

Want a copy of the original article? Message me – I'm happy to share it with you.

Want to know how this insight can help your business? Let's talk.

Thank you everyone for participating in the concept test for my upcoming book! I had almost 150 (anonymous) responses. Here are some insights from your feedback:

- you all love learning about why you choose the wine you do

-you're intrigued by the idea that there are “hidden influences” on your wine selections

-the word “psychology” can mean different things to different people, so it may not be a good word for a book title about wine

-including "science" could be misleading, because people might expect science & technology (instead of behavioural science, which is the book's focus)

-the word “wine” should be somewhere in the book title

Thank you all for your contributions! I'll be sharing more info about the book here. 

Have additional feedback or suggestions? I'd love to hear from you.

You are invited to participate in studies in the R3 Wine Consumer Lab. Studies will be starting again this Spring (pending approval from the Research Ethics Board). If you'd like to come to Brock University to participate, please stay tuned, or message me with your questions.

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