At the entrance to your local supermarket you see a notice asking for volunteers to take part in a taste test. To the left of the notice is a person sitting behind a desk. Being a psychology student, you think this might be interesting. You tell the person you would like to take part and they thank you and give you two identical-looking, but different, drinks to taste. You’re not told anything about them, other than that you should express a preference for one or the other. In one cup — labelled ‘L’ — is a sugary, sickly cola drink. In the other cup — labelled ‘S’ — is a an identical-looking, but different sugary, sickly cola drink. You don’t like either, really. But you indicate that, of the two, you prefer ‘S’.
You stop and think for a second. Your knowledge of psychology and experimental design alerts you to a potential design flaw. The drink labelled ‘S’ was presented to you on your right. And you drank it with your preferred hand. Maybe, just maybe, you weren’t expressing a preference for the taste of the drink, so much as a preference for drinking with your right hand?
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