Interesting press release from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, covering a series of four studies performed by Professor Baba Shiv and doctoral candidate Monica Wadhwa along with Stephen Nowlis of Arizona State University. It seems that samples can trigger desire for more goods beyond the sample itself.
One group of students was given small samples of a sweet drink or chocolate, and another group was given nothing, before being taken into a room to watch a film. The room contained readily-available food and drink items. The group which had a sample before the film ate and drank more during the film than those who hadn’t.
Furthermore, those who had a sweet drink sample indicated after the film a stronger desire for consumer goods and experiences — like vacations and chocolate cake. There was even a similar response for groups exposed to pleasant smells as opposed to eating a sample (though smell might be riskier to try — your lovely floral perfume is someone else’s horrible asthma attack.) You can get more details on the study at http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/shiv_sample.html.
