Running Head: IDENTIFYING ROOT BEER

To extend previous research on taste-testing, we attempted to ascertain if knowledge of the ingredients of two root beers has an effect on individuals ability to identify the brand of the root beer. 28 participants tasted two brands of root beer, Weinhardís and IBC. The ingredients of each brand were read to half of the participants. No significant differences were found between the two groups in their ability to correctly identify the brand of the root beer.

Identifying Root Beer: Does Information About the Ingredients Help?

The utilization of taste test experiments has a long tradition in Psychology. Taste test experiments are used by cola companies in advertising, perhaps falsely. Previous research indicates that people often profess to have loyalty to a certain brand, yet when participating in carefully controlled blind experiments, cannot correctly identify their supposed brand (Thumin, 1962). Recently, a new brand of root beer appeared on the market. This brand, Weinhardís, claims superior taste based on ingredients such as sassafras and vanilla. We decided to compare Weinhard's with IBC, a less known brand. IBC root beer does not contain designer ingredients. We designed an experiment to test the hypothesis that participants blind to the brand could still correctly identify both root beers if they knew the ingredients of each root beer. Participants unaware of the ingredients would have a 50-50 chance of identifying the correct root beer, because they would simply be guessing.

The experiment was designed and conducted so as to conform to APA guidelines (American Psychological Association, 1994).

Participants

The sample consisted of 28 participants, all of whom were walking past the swimming pavilion on the Lewis and Clark campus. We recruited subjects by asking if they would like to participate in a taste test, and by informing them they would receive free root beer. All participants willingly volunteered, and were given an informed consent form at the outset.

Materials

We used two brands of root beer , Weinhardís and IBC. Two eight ounce bottles of each root beer were used. Approximately one ounce portions of rootbeer were poured into each paper cup.

One out of the following two sets of instructions was read to each participant:

Group #1 (the group given the ingredients)

We are going to ask you to taste two different root beers, Weinhardís and IBC. The ingredients of Weinhardís are carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, vanilla extract, natural flavors, phosphoric acid, sodium benzoate, honey essence, acacia sassafras extract. The ingredients of the IBC root beer are carbonated water, sugar and or corn sweetener, caramel color caramel, sodium benzoate, artificial and natural flavors, food starch- modified and citric acid. Taste both before you decide which is which. Please guess if you are not sure. Here is sample one (Hand sample one). Here is sample two (Hand sample two).

Group #2 (the group not given the ingredients)

We are going to ask you to taste two different root beers, Weinhardís and IBC. Taste both before you decide which is which. Please guess if you are not sure. Here is sample one.(Hand sample one) Here is sample two. (Hand sample two).

Procedure

Each subject was asked if they would like to participate. If they said yes, we gave them an informed consent form to sign.

Each member of the experimental team performed a specific task, so that we had a double blind experiment. The person handing out the cups to the participants did not know which brand was in which cup. The other two of us knew which brand was in which cup, and kept track of data for each subject. To counter-balance for order, we switched which root beer brand we said first for half of the subjects.

Upon giving us their answer, and after we recorded the results, we informed participants if their guess had been correct or incorrect. We discussed the aim of our experiment further, and informed subjects of the other experimental group.

No significant result was obtained. c2 (df =1 N =28) = .164, p> .05. In the group which was told the ingredients, 10 people correctly identified the two root beers and the remaining four were incorrect. In the group which was not told the ingredients, 9 people were correct and 5 people were incorrect. Contrary to our hypothesis that knowledge of ingredients facilitates brand identification, there is no more difference between the groups than would be expected by chance alone.

The results indicate that no significant remarks can be made about a relationship between knowing the ingredients of root beer and identifying the brand name.

Our study was narrow in focus and did not take in to account other factors that could influence identifying the brand of a root beer. Some questions could have been; did previous experience with either brand of root beer impact participants answers, did frequency of previous exposure to root beer influence answers, and if the mention of the brand Weinhard's, influenced guesses in any way. Weinhardís also manufactures beer, so previous association with that particular brand could have influenced guesses that the root beer they perceived as better tasting was Weinhard's.

Procedural difficulties could have influenced results as well. We were not yet organized when we began recruiting subjects. Some of the subjects from the second experimental group may have heard us giving instructions to the first group. We attempted to control for this problem by assigning any subject who had any possibility of having heard the ingredients to the first experimental group. Observing subjects reaction to the instructions leads me to believe we could shorten the instructions to maintain subject interest. The long list of ingredients tended to make participants space out. Most people just wanted to drink the root beer and leave. If we consolidated the instructions to contain the similar ingredients only once, and emphasizing which ingredients Weinhardís has that IBC does not, both subject fatigue and researcher fatigue could be avoided.

Future research could focus on differences in ability to identify brand between individuals who drink a lot of root beer and those who do not.

Thumin, Fredrick J. (1962). Identification of Cola Beverages. Journal of Applied Psychology. 46 (5), 358-360.

American Psychological Association. (1994). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.