“I’ll have that too.” apparently isn’t as cool a phrase to utter in craft beer.
That is the conclusion in the book Invisible Influence by Jonah Berger.
According to an experiment by consumer psychologists Dan Ariely and Jonathan Levav, in which they offered brewery visitors the choice to try a sample of one of four beers: an IPA, a lager, an amber ale, or a wheat beer.
Some groups wrote down their order in private while other groups ordered aloud. The findings? Those who spoke their order were less satisfied with their own choice than those who did not speak their aloud. What was even more interesting was that the “vocal” group was dissatisfied because they had NOT wanted to order the same thing as everyone else.
Now some profess not to care what people think. But we don’t live in a bubble. If I see or hear a few people ordering a beer, I look to see what is going on and possibly order it myself. At times though, I do choose the contrary path (usually to swerve around IPA’s).
Speaking of the most popular style, I have to think that the runaway popularity had to create problems for any scientific study. Amber is not exactly a popular style, and neither is wheat unless it is hopped up. That leaves pilsner as the only “real” competition and that has to skew the results in my mind.
The next time you are in a brewery, sit near where the beers are ordered and see if an informal, unscientific polling proves or disproves this point.