Key points

Gender cues on wine labels shape women's expectations of a wine's taste.

Expectations alter perceptions.

Wine label aesthetics drive behavior, affecting purchase choice as well as the sensory experience of wine.

Expertise doesn’t erase the influence of wine labels' gender cues.

A 2024 study (Ruiying et al.) investigates whether subtle “ gender cues” on wine labels (i.e., feminine vs. masculine visual or textual cues) affect how women perceive and respond to the wine. Do gendered labels change what women expect from tasting, how much they like it, or whether they decide to buy it? The authors ran two experiments to test these ideas.

The Experiments

A "feminine" label. Source: ChatGPT/ AI

The researchers began with a deceptively simple question: Can something as subtl

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