The study described in the paper “Marketing Actions Can Modulate Neural Representation of Experienced Pleasantness” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science [2008]: 1050–1054) investigated whether price affects people’s judgment. Twenty people each tasted six cabernet sauvignon wines and rated how they liked them on a scale of 1 to 6. Prior to tasting each wine, participants were told the price of the wine. Of the six wines tasted, two were actually the same wine, but for one tasting the participant was told that the wine cost $10 per bottle and for the other tasting the participant was told that the wine cost $90 per bottle. The participants were randomly assigned either to taste the $90 wine first and the $10 wine second, or the $10 wine first and the $90 wine second. Differences (computed by subtracting the rating for the tasting in which the participant thought the wine cost $10 from the rating for the tasting in which the participant thought the wine cost $90) were computed. The differences that follow are consistent with summary quantities given in the paper.

Carry out a hypothesis test to determine if the mean rating assigned to the wine when the cost is described as $90 is greater than the mean rating assigned to the wine when the cost is described as $10. Use = .01.

Difference ($90 $10) 2 4 1 2 1 0 0 3 0 21 3 3 1 4 2 2-1