Brainwave manipulation...

I read about 2 news articles about studies that just seemed related to me:

“It’s very weird, I know,” admits Antonio Rangel, the lead author of the study and an associate economics professor at California Institute of Technology. “But people believe that more expensive prices are correlated with higher quality. So if you believe something better is happening to you, that affects the way your brain handles the experience.”

To Benson, what's particularly troubling about the study's finding is that some people may be confusing an item's worth with their own self-worth. These folks, she worries, will always be racing toward their next purchase, always inwardly questioning: Will this make me happy?

The happiness that follows a pricey purchase may be in part an immediate attempt to rationalize the money you just dropped. “We then start to think about it: ‘Huh, I must be worth it. I must be worth a lot if I’m buying this expensive item,’” Benson says.

Not to worry, bargain hunters — there’s joy to be found in Nordstrom Rack, as well. “The fact that you just found a good deal is enjoyable in its own self,” Rangel says. In other words, it's not the price you pay, it's what you believe something's worth.

Sadly, it’s a fleeting kind of glee. The brain scan study showed that the brain's pleasure centers only reacted to the enjoyment of the pricey wine for a few seconds, or just a few beats longer than it took to swallow. After that, your retail joy is gone. And so is your money.

Why do we value junk food more than our veggies?
Knowing how to tease people's taste buds into liking the food you make can be a big deal if you're trying to steer your family away from the holiday cheese ball and toward leaner fare. Imagine getting your family to eat more veggies just because you call them “snappy seasonal carrots.”

There's been some controversy recently over whether parents should deceive their vegetable-hating children by hiding the veggies in foods, but this taste trick is different. You're not pretending the broccoli isn't broccoli. You're conditioning them to like it with a fun word-association game.

Consider two pieces of day-old chocolate cake. If one is named “chocolate cake,” and the other is named “Belgian Black Forest Double Chocolate Cake,” people will buy the second. What is especially interesting is that after trying it, people will rate the Belgian cake as tasting better than an identical piece of plain old cake.

This name game is called “confirmation bias," meaning if you say something is juicy, people almost unconsciously turn up their “juicy sensors” when they taste the food. Once these taste sensors are activated, people become pre-programmed to think a dish tastes good.

As part of interviews with hundreds of 3-to-5-year-olds, we found a group of preschoolers who devoured broccoli because they were pretending to be dinosaurs eating a "dinosaur tree." With a different group of children, we let them choose what they wanted from a buffet lunch, but changed the name of the foods each day. When regular peas were renamed "power peas," the number of children who ate them doubled. When we renamed a tomato-based vegetable juice "Rainforest Smoothie," we ran out of it.

Rather than begging or nagging your children to eat their vegetables, come up with some words that make them seem cool or special. Choose phrases or expressions from their favorite bedtime story or TV program. If they're a bit older, telling a story about the recipe might make it seem more enticing.

Using the power of suggestion can be a simple way to get your family to eat better not only during the holidays, but anytime — all you have to do is boost your food vocabulary.

I wonder what all of that would look like mapped out.

We're all rats in a maze...

I think there might be a hungry cat at the exit...

I'll give it a try, but I don't think I'm the best candidate....'cause look what they're promising. So the question becomes, how will I know if it's worked?

Bwhahahahahaha!

I was too scared to sign up for the thing...

Someone else can try and let the rest of us know if it was magical or not.

*cough* GC, ahem

I'd think such a powerfully organized mind would be able to spell, or at least be organized enough to use a spell checker.

But if you act now, your secret crush will call you! If you act even faster, your secret crush will fall deeply in love with you! If you forward this to ten people who act fast, your secret crush will bring your other secret crush and you'll have dirty fun! Why are you waiting?!?!?!!!?!!?!!!???!!!!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?