A bittersweet symphony: Systematically modulating the taste of food by changing the sonic properties of the soundtrack playing in the background
Abstract
We report an experiment designed to investigate the consequences of manipulating the pitch of the background auditory stimulation on the taste of food. The participants in the present study evaluated four pieces of cinder toffee while listening to two auditory soundtracks, presented in a random order. One soundtrack was designed to be more crossmodally (or “synaesthetically”) congruent with a bitter-tasting food whereas the other soundtrack was designed to be more congruent with a sweet-tasting food instead. The participants rated each sample using three computer based line scales: One scale was anchored with the words bitter and sweet. The second scale required participants to localize the taste/flavour percept elicited by the food (at the front vs. back of their mouth). The third scale involved participants giving a hedonic evaluation of the foodstuff. As expected, the cinder toffee samples tasted while listening to the presumptively ‘bitter’ soundtrack were rated as tasting significantly more bitter than when exactly the same foodstuff was evaluated while listening to the ‘sweet’ soundtrack instead. These results provide the first convincing empirical demonstration that the crossmodal congruency of a background soundtrack can be used to modify the taste (and presumably also flavour) of a foodstuff.
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Both food-intrinsic sensory factors and food-extrinsic factors play a role in determining whether we accept and how we perceive food and beverages.
“Alarge body of research now supports the view that both food-intrinsic sensory factors (e.g., product colour, aroma, texture, viscosity, etc.) as well as food-extrinsic factors (e.g., visual, olfactory, and tactile”
From The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sensory Factors in Sweetness Perception of Food and Beverages: A Review (2019) · cites this paper as [7]
Participants rated cinder toffee samples higher on the sweet-bitter scale (sweeter and less bitter) while listening to a sweet soundtrack than while listening to a bitter soundtrack.
“Crucially, the participants rated the cinder to ee samples higher on the sweet-bitter scale (i.e., sweeter and less bitter) while listening to the sweet soundtrack than while listening to the bitter soundtrack.”
From The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sensory Factors in Sweetness Perception of Food and Beverages: A Review (2019) · cites this paper as [7]
Auditory stimuli can affect people's taste evaluations.
“Crisinel et al. [7] first demonstrated that beyond any cross-modal associations between sounds and taste words, auditory stimuli could also a ect people's taste evaluations.”
From The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sensory Factors in Sweetness Perception of Food and Beverages: A Review (2019) · cites this paper as [7]
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- Authors
- Crisinel, A.-S., Cosser, S., King, S., Jones, R., Petrie, J., & Spence, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Japan Food Research Laboratories (JP)
- Corresponding author
- Crisinel, Anne-Sylvie
- Venue
- Food Quality and Preference
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-04
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 201-204
- ISSN
- 0950-3293 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2009400438
- Cited by
- 231
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 9.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Food Quality and Preference (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Berrow Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Keywords
- cross-modal correspondence, taste perception, synesthesia, hedonic evaluation
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