In my last year of business school, I took a class called
Consumer behavior. It was easily one of my favorite courses and the professor was incredible.<p>But one day she wanted to prove a psychological insight about rating Coffee - namely that in blind taste tests, people can’t distinguish between $5/lb coffee and $100/lb coffee (she literally bought all types). We set up a blind tasting line and all rated the drinks after a sip or two. Then we submitted an o line poll.<p>Her mistake came in actually showing the results real time - they showed that we COULD tell the difference, even if subtly. She went on to explain, without looking at the screen, that we had just proven the theory right.<p>Now, it’s true that we could’ve been the “outlier” group that randomly aligned with the the ratings. But it shows that if our group had been the first to be tested all those year ago, the researcher may have stopped - who reports on what you expect?