People are more likely to say a wine tastes great if they are told it is from Chateau Mouton Rothschild, or enjoy chocolates more if they believe they're Swiss, research has found.

A study at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts found that people were more likely to praise the flavour of chocolates if they were told they were from Switzerland than another group who were told they were from China, when they were both in fact the same cheap supermarket brand.

In a similar experiment, 64 were given a wine that was either from India or Italy, although, interestingly, more people said they preferred the Indian wine once they had been told of its country of origin.

Keith Wilcox, the consumer psychologist who led the research, said the findings probably say more about consumers' taste buds than they do about quality food and drink.

"What the connoisseur might consider to be a high-end wine that should cost a lot of money isn't necessarily going to translate to the average consumer's taste," he added.