Let's practice!

Hi again! 

Last session we put the learned theories about perception into practice! We had to prepare some small experiments, such as a blind-taste test. The aim was to see how our senses perceive things and if there are differences between people. One group for example tested our perception of chocolate. They had three different plates with chocolate of three different brands. Our task was it then to say, which chocolate tastes best and which is the most expensive. The result was that most people preferred chocolate Nr. 2 and it was the most expensive. So, in this case we can conclude that that expensive tastes better.

Another experiment was the all-time battle of Coca-Cola & Pepsi. We got three cups of cola, and surprisingly most identified the cup with Coca-Cola. Well, I think it’s surprising, because in my opinion there is no big difference between these two; another proof for the fact, that we perceive things differently ;-).

As a sideline we learned, how important the accurate execution of the experiment is. You have to consider that the experiment is just affecting the sense/senses you want to test. One group for example tested our blind-taste of biscuits, but they had to break up the cookies, because the brand name is standing on the cookies, and that would probably have an influence on our perception, although we do not recognize it.

Anyway, Sabine and I thought we would like to create another experiment, because we just had experiments related to tasting. Therefore we designed an experiment and asked our friends for help. We gave them two different songs to hear, each was related to a specific TV-commercial for a either a woman’s or a man’s perfume. The task was now, to describe, how they perceive the music or if they think it’s more male or female. They also had to guess for which product this spot is. In the following I will describe the result we get for our “female commercial”. You can read about the other half of our experiment in Sabine’s blog.

We chose the spot for the perfume “Parisienne by Yves-Saint Laurent”. If you like, you can have a look at the spot:  

In our experiment it was crucial that the test persons just heard the music, and do not get to see the commercials. Therefore we called them on Skype and then played the video. So, they were able to hear the music, but they could not see the spot.

We asked eight people; six men and two women.  All test persons are 20-25 years old. Anyway, all said that this music must definitely be related to a male product. Five said that it is probably a commercial for a car; one person said, it seemed to be a spot for gents’ shoes and another one said it is a spot for menswear or sportswear. Our test persons described the music as fast, energetic, male, strong, dynamic and active. The majority said that they imagine a man driving a car through a rough landscape; or a man driving through a city and women are gazing after him. The car was either described as a sporty drop-top or an off-road vehicle. Other imaginations were men doing sports like hiking, or a good looking man walking through the city. We then revealed that both commercials are for perfumes, and we asked which commercial is for which gender. Again, the majority related the spot for “Parisienne” to a man’s fragrance. They were really surprised when they got to know that this music appears in a commercial for a women’s fragrance. Nonetheless, most liked the spot, especially our male testees^^

However, that’s it about our experiment. Thanks to the volunteers who helped us with our experiment, your perception is absolutely unique ;-)

Hope to see you again, and best wishes from Bucks,

Rebecca