Using Economic Incentives to Distinguish Perception Bias from Discrimination Ability in Taste Tests

Abstract

Taste test are commonly used to determine if participants can detect a difference between products; however, any test is subject to guessing and a perception bias by the participants. The authors use economic incentives to induce subjects to reveal their perceived tasting abilities and minimize their guessing. The method provides three additional pieces of information: (1) a test of the differences between the products, (2) a measure of the subject's perceived discrimination ability, and (3) a measure of the subject's perception bias with respect to his or her true discrimination ability.