This 200 word post took me over 24 hours to research and write. I hope you find it interesting.
Consider a study in which participants drank an energy drink that promised to improve their concentration and then solved some word problems. Half the participants paid full price for the drink while the other half got it at a discount. The ones who paid more solved 30% more puzzles. The same researchers have also found that medicine works better when people are charged more money for it.
In another study researchers let people taste red wines. Unbeknownst to the participants the same exact wine had been labelled as both $5 and as $90. Participants rated the wine higher when they thought it was more expensive. And brain scans revealed that they actually did enjoy the wine better when it had the fancier label.
We literally get more benefit from things when we know they cost a lot.
I have to come clean: this post only took me an hour to write. I lied about the 24 hours for your benefit; so that you would get more out of it.
But maybe we can get this same effect (without being lied to) by simply taking a moment to reflect on how how much our parents or ancestors or forefathers sacrificed to give us an amazing life. The freedoms we experience were not cheap.
Andy's Quote of the Day 
I loved the ending to this post–and the energy drink study!! I had never heard of that one. Good stuff, my friend!
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