Q: What else influences people?

A: Names. A while back, someone who operated a healthy cafeteria called to say, “No one is eating in our cafeteria. What should we do?” So we simply changed the names of the foods they served.

Instead of Italian Pasta, we called it Succulent Tuscany Pasta. Or instead of Chocolate Cake, we called it Belgian Black Forest Cake, even though the Black Forest isn’t in Belgium. Once we added a descriptive name, sales jumped by 27 percent. And it’s not just that food. People rated the restaurant better and the chef more competent.

If you believe that something’s going to taste good, you look for the qualities that confirm that. If you believe the milk is spoiled, you drink the milk looking for confirmation of that, too.

Proof that GIMP needs to change its name already, even if it is an acronym.

From How external cues make us overeat

Update: Some folks have questioned why I used a food-related article as my argument for Gimp needing a new name. The research is not food specific. People don’t make decisions solely on quality. The brain starts making decisions whether or not to like something before we are even consciously aware of it. The value of a product and service is determined by more than whether or not it serves its purpose well. So before you or I can introduce how awesome GIMP is to someone who has never used it, we are already fighting an uphill battle. And this is supposed to be good? Nothing like a project to handicap itself from the start.