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Is your enjoyment of wine hedonic or eudaimonic? Maybe you don’t know (or care), but the first is more likely to give you a hangover than the second. I learned this from the British psychologist, Dr. Miles Thomas who has a special interest in wine. In fact, he is passionate about it, and this has led him to find way to link his work and his hobby.
www.winepsych.com is the result. He claims it is the first website to be dedicated to psychology and wine and hopes to attract “likeminded souls spread over the planet who think this is an interesting mix.”
What can psychology add to drinking wine? It will give us insights into why the “multiple realisability” (the fact that it can pan out in lots of ways, like a game of chess) of wine gives us pleasure; it will help us understand how our sensory processes work (taste and smell are the relevant ones here, obviously);and show why we choose our wine. It can explain why individuals have varied responses to the same wine, and how that changes according to whether we taste on our own or in a group. It will tell us why being told a wine is expensive can increase our enjoyment.
Rather intriguingly, Dr. Thomas says that psychology can "shed light on how the often rarified and exclusive wine world could be much more intelligible and accessible." He also claims that experts are much more prone to mistakes than they might like to admit.
By the way, the “hedonic aspects” are direct pleasures, which are sensory and enjoyable; wine tastes good, (usually), and is enjoyable in itself, not just for the psychoactive element -ie alcohol-but for its thirst-quenching tastiness. I imagine we can all relate to that when it comes to young fruity wines. This comes with the qualifier that the pleasure is related to calories – I think we would rather not be reminded of this - colour, and, yes, intoxication.
“Endaimonic valence” means higher order cultural reinforcement, apparently. It’s about wellbeing and personal growth, not about appetite sating – we get psychological rewards from learning about wine (this might be a thirst, literally, for knowledge or to do with status) or sharing it with friends as a form of socializing.
How does our choice of wine reflect our personality? This is a question Dr. Thomas is often asked. It is hard to answer because there are so many variables; we don’t drink wine in laboratory conditions. In fact, where we drink – restaurants, bars, at home – with whom we drink, the lighting, music or other noise are all things that influence our perceptions. The rewards we get from drinking wine are relaxation, confidence, social disinhibition and intoxication. But the way we use language to describe a wine, and what we think we get from it, says as much about us as the wine.
When it comes to making a decision about which wine to buy in a store, or choose from a list in a restaurant, we are not as logical as we think. As we know, marketing strategies to get us to buy brands are increasingly sophisticated, and big companies draw on the insight of psychologists to design their labels and promotional material. At a basic level, supermarkets may play Edith Piaff to shift cases of Beaujolais – and it works. Human beings like things to match.
If stress comes into it – and let’s face it, many people are worried about making a fool of themselves in smart wine shops or in front of possibly snooty wine waiters – we can become confused and overwhelmed. This is why we sometimes leave the shop with a wine we are not sure we want. Many people have had a wine in a restaurant which wasn’t really what they had in mind.
Have you ever thought of wine as essentially risky? A sense of risk will accompany the purchase of any expensive wine – will it be worth what you are paying? Drinking old, rare wines is inherently risky. It could hurt your pocket, or maybe your ego if you bought a big name or great vintage to impress and it turns out disappointing, or worse case scenario, corked. If this takes you out of your comfort zone, you may be the type who seeks out a brand for its consistency. At the other end of the sale are the risk-takers who experiment by buying from small growers, little known regions, and the not-so-safe vintages.
For the risk averse, classifications and scores should be reassuring. However, according to Dr. Thomas, these are simply a convenient fiction that we use to get a grip on a difficult subject. “People want predictability. But Robert Parker scores are a representation of a wine which says as much about him as the wine”. He himself likes unpredictability and would like to encourage others to embrace this concept. “ I think it is good to experience risk! Diversity is OK – homogeneity is not so wonderful! Be random, be adventurous, be open to new experiences!”
Personally this takes the form of exploring lesser-known areas, like the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. He loves going off the beaten track to knock on doors of winegrowers. He often finds himself welcomed by locals who are pleased someone has taken the trouble to find them. It has led to excellent discoveries and interesting experiences – the antidote, as he sees it, to the de-personalizing character of contemporary life.
In his professional life as a lecturer at the University of East London, and in clinical work with children and families, Dr. Thomas favours an approach called Positive Psycholgy. In the past, psychology has focused on diagnosing problems and helping people solve them. Now there are studies to understand the strategies some people naturally use which result in a positive approach to life.
In a book he is writing, he looks at how wine can play a role. Simply being focused or immersed in an activity can make you feel better. If this is true, there must be some very well-grounded, happy wine geeks out there.
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