The Pricier the buffet, the tastier it seems

A new study has found that the price you pay at a buffet plays a role in deciding how much the food satisfies you.

In a study by researchers from Cornell University 139 diners in an Italian all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant were either charged 4 or 8 dollars for the lunch buffet. The buffet offered pizza, salad, breadsticks, pasta, and soup. After finishing, diners were asked to rate the taste of the pizza and how much they enjoyed the dining experience on a 9 point scale.

The authors said that people set their expectation of taste partially based on the price, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, they really ended up regretting choosing the buffet when it was cheap. Diners who paid the higher price for the buffet rated the pizza as being 11 percent tastier. In contrast, those who paid 4 dollars, half as much for the same food, not only enjoyed the pizza less, but they enjoyed the food lesser with each additional piece of pizza. In both situations, the diners ate an average of three slices of pizza.

Based on these findings the researchers recommend that buffet owners think twice before setting a low buffet cost, even though cheap all-you-can-eat buffets were popular, people tend to stick to the "you get what you pay for" mentality and would rate the food lower in quality.

The study is published in the Journal of Sensory Studies.