Does the cost in a buffet influence how much you like the food? Surprisingly, yes! In a new Cornell Food and Brand Lab study published in the Journal of Sensory Studies, researchers found that when charged more to have an all-you-can-eat buffet diners rated the meals greater than when charged less for the similar food.
In the research, conducted by researchers David Just PhD., Ozge Sigirci, and Brian Wansink PhD. author of the forthcoming book, Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life, 139 diners within an Italian all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant were either charged $4 or $8 for that lunch buffet. The buffet offered pizza, salad, breadsticks, pasta, and soup. After finishing, diners were inspired to rate the taste of the pizza and just how much they enjoyed the dining experience on the 9 point scale.
“People set their expectation of taste partially based on the price-and it might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I didn’t pay much it can’t be that good. Moreover, each slice is worse than the last. People really wound up regretting choosing the buffet if this was cheap,” says Just. Diners who paid the larger price for the buffet rated the pizza to be 11% tastier. In contrast, those paying $4, half as much for the similar food, not only enjoyed the pizza less, but they enjoyed the meals much less with every additional piece of pizza. Both in situations diners ate typically three slices of pizza.
Based on these findings they recommend that buffet owners think hard before setting a low buffet cost, despite the fact that cheap all-you-can-eat buffets are popular, people tend to keep to the “you get that which you pay for” mentality and can rate the meals lower in quality.
According to Wansink, there’s also news you should use if you’re someone, “Avoid cheap all-you-can-eat buffets. Go to the most expensive buffet you really can afford. You’ll eat the same amount but enjoy the experience and the food more!”
