Eating just one Belgian truffle can make you “significantly more likely” to desire a Mac than your more self-controlled neighbor, according to a study due to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Professors Juliano Laran (University of Miami) and Chris Janiszewski (University of Florida) conducted a two part study in which one group of participants was given a chocolate truffle, while the other group was required to abstain. In part one of the study, the researchers found, not surprisingly, the group of truffle eaters was more likely than their pleasure-restricted peers to to unleash a “what the hell” syndrome, and revealed a desire for additional treats such as pizza, ice cream and potato chips, while their abstaining counterparts found it easier to resist temptation.
Part two of the study again had people eat or resist a chocolate truffle and asked them to indicate how much they desired several products that are symbols of status [for example] an Apple computer… “People who ate the truffle desired the status products significantly more than those who had to resist the truffle,” write Laran and Janiszewski.
The answer to Apple’s flat Mac sales, then, would appear to be free truffles for every visitor to an Apple Retail Store. Someone get an advance abstract of Behavioral Consistency and Inconsistency in the Resolution of Goal Conflict to Cupertino, stat!
Via The Register UK
4 responses to “Truffle Lovers Can’t Say No to Macs”
I was all set to buy a new MacBook to an addition to our 2001 800 mhz G4 PowerBook. But then, drum roll …, no firewire.
Yep. That’s what stopped me. And the price difference between a MacBook and a MacBook Pro is too much just for FireWire. Especially when the new MacBooks start at $1300 instead of $100. And NO, the $999 old MacBook isn’t going to cut it.
Considering that I’m going to keep any new Apple laptop at least seven years I’m not going to buy last generations model which is basically a year or so old even though it is brand new.
Why is FireWire a problem? Or lack of FireWire?
My video camera (digital 8 tape) has a FireWire connection with no USB option (other than still pictures on the memory card.
Then there is my three external hard drives. Since there aren’t four USB ports it means that I would have to be daisy chaining them and that would mean performance on my hard drives just nose dived about 70% (they are fine if they aren’t daisy chained but when they are they suck). And using a USB hub doesn’t fix the problem since they all still go through the same USB port.
It would literally make more sense for me to buy a 20 inch iMac and find a way to hook up a battery system to it then it would be to buy a MacBook for me. And that would be very cool but stupid.
So what do I do? I wait until a better Mac option appears. Maybe the Mac Mini which hasn’t been updated for 490 days. Grrrr. At least it would be smaller than the iMac and easier to carry around with enough money left to have external monitors and an iLugger carrying bag (not I don’t have any financial connection to them).
Argh!!!!
……love ALL this stuff!!