Comfort foods get even more comforting if you eat them with the right kind of musical ambiance, according to a new study on the effects of different background music on the taste of foods. Similar earlier research showed genres of music can also elicit different emotions and some foods can be more enjoyed with emotions.
“Little has been known about the influence of background music genre on food perception,” explained Han-Seok Seo of the University of Arkansas. “Most of the studies investigating influences of background music have focused on eating and shopping behaviors.”
Seo is the co-author of the study that is published in the Appetite journal. He mentioned in the paper when German or French music was played in a wine store, it was seen wines from the same country outsold other.
The study
Seo and his team rearranged one music piece (Air on the G string) into four different genres: classical, jazz, hip-hop and rock. Each version was arranged as a solo performance and with multiple performers. A total of 99 study participants were seated in individual sensory booths and given headphones. Each participant listened to either the solo performances or the group performances of all four genres of music. At 45 seconds into each song, the participants were presented with either chocolate or bell pepper and asked to rate the flavor and intensity of the food from 0 (extremely unpleasant or weak) to 15 (extremely pleasant) or strong.
Among their findings was the discovery that jazz made the chocolate taste measurably better and hip hop did not. The same effect wasn't seen on the bell peppers. Classical music didn't change the participants' impressions at all.
But Seo cautions restauranteurs from rushing to switch music stations.
“This study showed that background music genre can modulate flavor pleasantness and overall acceptability of chocolate,” Seo explained.
They also found that the background music-induced food perception varies by music performer, type of food, consumers’ demographics, experience and culture. “Thus, to strengthen the current findings, further studies with diverse musical and food stimuli must be conducted.”
Bottom line
The study underscores how much more there is to eating than just putting food in your mouth. “When we eat it is clearly not only the palate that determines what we eat and how much we eat,” said Thomas Hummel of Technische Universität in Dresden, Germany. “The acoustic environment also plays a big role, it let's us eat faster, leaves us hungrier, changes the pleasantness of foods, turns regular food into something special. I also can imagine that this may change the depth of our social contacts.”
Sources: http://news.discovery.com/, http://www.thealmagest.com/, http://www.reuters.com/