科学美国人60秒:Bigger Glasses Rack Up More Wine Sales

Ever order a drink, and feel stiffed on the pour? Well, before you bother the bartender, take a closer look at the size of your glass. "So people will generally perceive there to be less in larger containers, than in smaller ones." Theresa Marteau, a behavioral scientist at the University of Cambridge, in England.
是否有过这样的感受?点了一杯酒，但是杯子里的酒却让人心生郁闷。不要着急埋怨酒保，先看看你的酒杯大小吧!“与小的酒杯相比，人们会认为同样多的酒，在大的酒杯里，酒就会显得很少。”特丽莎·马尔托是剑桥大学的行为科学家。

She and her colleagues had analyzed how larger portions—and larger plates—lure us into eating more food. And they wondered: could the same be true for alcohol?
她和同事们分析了大份量——以及较大的盘子——如何让我们吃更多的食物。之后，她们怀疑，同样的理论是否也适用于喝酒呢?

So the researchers convinced the staff at a local bar to run an experiment: every two weeks, for four months, they'd rotate the bar's wine glasses from the standard 300 milliliter size, to either slightly larger—370 milliliters, or slightly smaller—250 milliliters. And see how the size of the glass affected patrons' drinking habits, even though the pour, the volume of alcoholic beverage, was unchanged.
所以，研究人员说服了在当地酒吧的一些员工进行了一次实验：四个月内，每两周，他们就会将酒吧的标准300毫升的酒杯，换成370毫升或者250毫升的酒杯。并研究酒杯的大小是如何影响顾客的饮酒习惯的，但是酒精饮料的总量是不变的。

Turns out, serving wine in smaller glasses had no measurable effect. But the large glasses boosted wine sales 10 percent—even after controlling for day of the week, temperature, holidays and so on. The reason? "When the wine, the same volume, is being served in a larger glass, then people are probably perceiving they've got less in there." Which, she says, means they might drink more, assuming they haven't hit their nightly limit. Or, they might just feel less satisfied with the pour, and buy another round. The study appears in the journal BMC Public Health.
结果表明，用较小的酒杯不会产生太大的影响。但是用较大的酒杯，则使酒类的销售量提升了10%——即使控制了天数、温度、假期等其他因素。为什么会产生这样的结果呢?因为，同样多的酒，当放在较大的杯子时，人们可能会感觉酒似乎非常少。马尔托解释到，这就意味着人们会增大饮酒量，因为他们觉得这还没达到自己的酒量呢!或者，也可能是他们觉得这点酒还不够，还需要再来一杯。该研究结果发表在《BMC公共卫生》杂志上。

Aside from altering her own habits—"I do use smaller glasses, yes"—Marteau says that, if subsequent studies confirm this effect, public health officials might consider mandating a certain average glass size. "Specifying the size, the maximum size in which wine can be sold could be a measure that's introduced to reduce the overconsumption of alcohol that seems to be cued by the glass size." Until that happens, the bar in the study now always serves its wine in the larger glasses.
除了改变自己的习惯——“我还会用较小的酒杯”——马尔托表示，如果后续的研究证实了此结果，那么公共卫生官员或许可以考虑规定酒杯的大小。“具体说道酒杯的大小，可以卖的酒的最大量可以测量减少由于酒杯大小所引起的过度酗酒”在那之前，现在参与研究的这间酒吧总是用较大的酒杯哦!