All audiences have reported that their understanding of what inflation is all about was much improved by this thought experiment. Generally, college students have voted for the current menu even in times when the aggregate rate of price increase averaged 3 percent or more, implying that they felt that true prices had actually declined.
College students may be unusually influenced by fads that do not truly improve goods (narrow or wide ties, etc. ), and the implicit bias in measured price indexes may well be overstated by collegiate polls.