The effect of background music on food pleasantness ratings

This study investigated whether samples of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant music can impact food perception. To this end, the pleasantness of three different types of chocolate gelati (milk chocolate, dark chocolate and bittersweet chocolate) was determined using 50 participants exposed to silence (the reference condition) and three music samples differing in self-rated preference. To measure hedonic responses to the gelati samples, the Time Intensity method was utilized to derive the maximum intensity of pleasantness and the area under the Time Intensity pleasantness curve. The presence of non-preferred music significantly decreased the pleasantness ratings of all three types of chocolate gelati tested, while preferred music increased perceived pleasantness ratings of dark and bittersweet chocolate gelati, but not milk chocolate gelato. Time Intensity parameters for pleasantness ratings did not differ significantly across the three different types of chocolate gelati in the silent condition, suggesting that listening to the music influenced gelati pleasantness ratings. This study demonstrated that the pleasantness of gelati changed with music valence. The findings echo previous studies emphasizing the importance of crossmodal effects between music and food perception.

[1]  Patricia Stefanowicz,et al.  Sensory evaluation of food principles and practices , 2013 .

[2]  T. Paus.  Functional anatomy of arousal and attention systems in the human brain. , 2000, Progress in brain research.

[3]  J. Westerink,et al.  Emotional and psychophysiological responses to tempo, mode, and percussiveness , 2011 .

[4]  S. Stansfeld,et al.  Noise, noise sensitivity and psychiatric disorder: epidemiological and psychophysiological studies. , 1993, Psychological medicine.

[5]  R T Marshall,et al.  Effect of milk fat, cocoa butter, and whey protein fat replacers on the sensory properties of lowfat and nonfat chocolate ice cream. , 2000, Journal of dairy science.

[6]  H. Macfie,et al.  DESIGNS TO BALANCE THE EFFECT OF ORDER OF PRESENTATION AND FIRST-ORDER CARRY-OVER EFFECTS IN HALL TESTS , 1989 .

[7]  H. Heymann,et al.  Temporal Release of Flavor Compounds from Low-fat and High-fat Ice Cream During Eating , 2003 .

[8]  Ellen Poliakoff,et al.  Effect of background noise on food perception , 2011 .

[9]  C. Spence,et al.  As bitter as a trombone: Synesthetic correspondences in nonsynesthetes between tastes/flavors and musical notes , 2010, Attention, perception & psychophysics.

[10]  M. Helsing.  Everyday music listening: The importance of individual and situational factors for musical emotions and stress reduction , 2012 .

[11]  S. Young.  How to increase serotonin in the human brain without drugs. , 2007, Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN.

[12]  C. Spence,et al.  The impact of pleasantness ratings on crossmodal associations between food samples and musical notes , 2012 .

[13]  S. Gosling,et al.  PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES The Do Re Mi’s of Everyday Life: The Structure and Personality Correlates of Music Preferences , 2003 .

[14]  P. Pauli,et al.  Oral Perceptions of Fat and Taste Stimuli Are Modulated by Affect and Mood Induction , 2013, PloS one.

[15]  M. Bradley,et al.  Affective reactions to acoustic stimuli. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[16]  Céline Jacob,et al.  Styles of background music and consumption in a bar: an empirical evaluation. , 2006 .

[17]  Elliot Maltz,et al.  Purchase occasion influence on the role of music in advertising , 2005 .

[18]  Charles Spence,et al.  Implicit association between basic tastes and pitch , 2009, Neuroscience Letters.

[19]  Elliott Salamon,et al.  The effects of auditory perception and musical preference on anxiety in naive human subjects. , 2003, Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research.

[20]  C. Spence,et al.  The influence of auditory cues on the perception of, and responses to, food and drink , 2010 .

[21]  Jamie Ward,et al.  Crossmodal interactions: lessons from synesthesia. , 2006, Progress in brain research.

[22]  R. Harrington,et al.  Background music genre can modulate flavor pleasantness and overall impression of food stimuli , 2014, Appetite.

[23]  A. North,et al.  The Effects of Musical Fit on Choice Between Competing Pairs of Cultural Products , 2009 .

[24]  J. Russell.  A circumplex model of affect. , 1980 .

[25]  L. Stafford,et al.  Effects of noise and distraction on alcohol perception , 2012 .

[26]  K. Holmqvist,et al.  Eye movements and reading comprehension while listening to preferred and non-preferred study music , 2012 .

[27]  G. Clore,et al.  Mood as Information: 20 Years Later , 2003 .

[28]  Vladimir J. Konečni,et al.  Does music induce emotion? A theoretical and methodological analysis. , 2008 .

[29]  H. Heymann,et al.  Effect of Milk Fat on the Sensory Properties of Chocolate Ice Cream , 1999 .

[30]  S. Schultz.  Principles of Neural Science, 4th ed. , 2001 .

[31]  C. Spence,et al.  Crossmodal associations between flavoured milk solutions and musical notes. , 2011, Acta psychologica.

[32]  P. Gomez,et al.  Affective and physiological responses to environmental noises and music. , 2004, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[33]  Emery Schubert.  Modeling Perceived Emotion With Continuous Musical Features , 2004 .

[34]  G. Beauchamp,et al.  Effects of repeated exposure and health-related information on hedonic evaluation and acceptance of a bitter beverage , 2003, Appetite.

[35]  C. Spence,et al.  A bittersweet symphony: Systematically modulating the taste of food by changing the sonic properties of the soundtrack playing in the background , 2012 .

[36]  J. Melichar,et al.  Human Taste Thresholds Are Modulated by Serotonin and Noradrenaline , 2006, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[37]  N. Stroebele,et al.  Influence of physiological and subjective arousal on food intake in humans. , 2006, Nutrition.