This week’s class was in keeping with last weeks- Exciting, interesting and a lot of fun! Who thought you could enjoy University life this much? On a more serious note, the experiments we undertook today provided us with very interesting findings.
Basically, the experiments we were advised to complete had to show how individuals perceive things differently. Out experiments ranged form chocolate and Pepsi taste tests to aftershave and perfume smell tests to visual interpretation of pictures, some of which I have included below.
Surprisingly enough, the two tests I found most interesting didn’t involve chocolate! The diet Pepsi/diet Coca-Cola test was first shock us all! Twenty cups were laid out, labelled A and B with diet Pepsi in one and diet Coca-Cola in the other. Ten people from our class were chosen to take the test and we were given a cup of each. Being oblivious to which drink was in each cup, we had to write out favourite. After some serious thought I was sure A was Diet Coke and B was Diet Pepsi, I also preferred A along with the other 9 people who took the test. Believe it or not, it was in fact Diet Pepsi in cup A.
Since the first blind taste test was set up between Coca-Cola and Pepsi in 1975, the majority of people have picked Pepsi as the better tasting of the two soft drinks and out experiment further adds to this. So, if Pepsi tastes better, why does Coca- Cola have 44.3% of US soft drinks market share and why does Pepsi only have 31.4%? Is it due to a negative perception we have of Pepsi? Or is it because we believe Coca-Cola is a ‘better’ brand? Personally, I would always choose Coca-Cola over Pepsi but I have no particular reason for this. Maybe it is down to marketing? Who knows?! What do you prefer? and more importantly, why?
Our second perception test was a visual one. We printed pictures from the internet which could easily be interpreted in different ways. They were passed around the class and out individual findings were recorded. This test was very strange in that, some people were set on focusing on one thing and were not able to adapt to see the other possibility. This is a perfect example of perceptual set, where by people get “set in their ways”. For example, in picture one (below) do you see a young girl or an old lady? 18 people in our class saw a young girl in the picture however 2 people saw an old lady. Interestingly, these 2 ‘odd’ people were male! In the elephant picture (picture two), how many legs does it have? This caused a lot of debate between our group but there is no right or wrong answer, it is how YOU perceive something. What your friend sees and what you see could easily be different. I found this test was also a good demonstration of our individuality. Have a look at the other pictures below and see what you can make of them!
Basically, the experiments we were advised to complete had to show how individuals perceive things differently. Out experiments ranged form chocolate and Pepsi taste tests to aftershave and perfume smell tests to visual interpretation of pictures, some of which I have included below.
Surprisingly enough, the two tests I found most interesting didn’t involve chocolate! The diet Pepsi/diet Coca-Cola test was first shock us all! Twenty cups were laid out, labelled A and B with diet Pepsi in one and diet Coca-Cola in the other. Ten people from our class were chosen to take the test and we were given a cup of each. Being oblivious to which drink was in each cup, we had to write out favourite. After some serious thought I was sure A was Diet Coke and B was Diet Pepsi, I also preferred A along with the other 9 people who took the test. Believe it or not, it was in fact Diet Pepsi in cup A.
Since the first blind taste test was set up between Coca-Cola and Pepsi in 1975, the majority of people have picked Pepsi as the better tasting of the two soft drinks and out experiment further adds to this. So, if Pepsi tastes better, why does Coca- Cola have 44.3% of US soft drinks market share and why does Pepsi only have 31.4%? Is it due to a negative perception we have of Pepsi? Or is it because we believe Coca-Cola is a ‘better’ brand? Personally, I would always choose Coca-Cola over Pepsi but I have no particular reason for this. Maybe it is down to marketing? Who knows?! What do you prefer? and more importantly, why?
Our second perception test was a visual one. We printed pictures from the internet which could easily be interpreted in different ways. They were passed around the class and out individual findings were recorded. This test was very strange in that, some people were set on focusing on one thing and were not able to adapt to see the other possibility. This is a perfect example of perceptual set, where by people get “set in their ways”. For example, in picture one (below) do you see a young girl or an old lady? 18 people in our class saw a young girl in the picture however 2 people saw an old lady. Interestingly, these 2 ‘odd’ people were male! In the elephant picture (picture two), how many legs does it have? This caused a lot of debate between our group but there is no right or wrong answer, it is how YOU perceive something. What your friend sees and what you see could easily be different. I found this test was also a good demonstration of our individuality. Have a look at the other pictures below and see what you can make of them!
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1 comment:
This is fantastic. A really great write up. Thanks
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