Just watched an episode of Brain Games an saw a test that struck me as very interesting - they had two panels examine a set of products. The women's panel examined and rated 5 nylon stockings and the men's panel examined and rated 5 pairs of blue jeans - both were using a given criteria set by which to judge the items.
Interestingly, the items were identical! But the judges were not told that they were the same and rated them differently. It made me wonder if a panel of BJCP judges were set up the same way, how well they would do analyzing the same beer?
When told about the test some of the subjects then acknowledged that they thought they were the same, while others still felt that there were legitimate differences. The point is, if you expect there to be discernable differences, your brain can trick you into finding them...
Something to think about.