Most Americans Blame Trump For The Price Of Gas

 

These charts are from the Strength in Numbers / Verasight Poll -- done between July 14th and 17th of a nationwide sample of 1,514 adults, with a 2.6 point margin of error.

Most Americans Blame Trump For The Rising Gas Prices

 

The chart above reflects the results of the NPR / PBS News / Marist Poll -- done between April 27th and 30th of a nationwide sample of 1,322 adults (including 1,155 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.1 points for adults and 3.3 points for registered voters.

Trump Claims Record Tariff Income And Falling Prices - No One Believes Him

The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between May 2nd and 5th of a nationwide sample of 1,850 adults (including 1,693 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.4 points for adults and 3.2 points for registered voters. 

Our Brain Betrays Us As Consumers

It turns out that price may be more important than taste when it comes to having a pleasurable wine experience. That's the conclusion of a group of researchers from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology.

They say that people trick themselves into enjoying an expensive wine more than an inexpensive one -- regardless of the actual taste. They served a group of people the same wine, but told them that some glasses of it cost a lot more than other glasses.

The group voiced significantly more pleasure in the glasses of wine they were told were expensive (even though the same wine was in all of the glasses). It seems that an expectation of quality triggers activity in the part of the brain that registers pleasure (medial orbitofrontal cortex), even though this part of the brain has nothing to do with taste.

I kind of wish they hadn't done this study. It just tells marketers that the easiest way to improve the perception of quality is to raise the price -- the more the better. Goodby, inexpensive wine!