What Bitcoin and Pepsi teach us about human nature

Remember the Pepsi Challenge? For readers too young to have encountered it, the Pepsi Challenge is a marketing stunt organised by Pepsi, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s. Pepsi representatives would set up a stand in shopping centres or public locations and present two white cups to bystanders. One cup would contain Pepsi-Cola, and one would contain Coca-Cola. People would then be encouraged to test both colas and select the one they preferred without knowing which is which. While most people instinctively think they preferred Coca-Cola, a majority chose Pepsi in the challenge.