INFORMATION AFFECTS CONSUMER ASSESSMENT OF SWEET AND BITTER SOLUTIONS

We examined the effects of information on consumer's perception of bas is tastes and tested the hypothesis that individual variations in tast e sensitivity maybe inversely correlated with persuasiveness. 111 subj ects were grouped based on ability to rate sweet and bitter solutions (high, medium, and low ability) and the effects of varying information about the solutions before assessment were measured. Consumers change d ratings after reading the information regardless af their ability. W hen a similar experiment was carried our with 23 trained people, infor mation had no effect on ratings. Results suggest that other factors (s uch as experience. training) control the way consumers are influenced by information when assessing sensory attributes.