Hello everyone, this post is about research that I have been working on with the Auckland University of Technology ( AUT) at the School of Applied Science. AUT is my university where I graduated with a Diploma of Applied Science. This latest research has now been completed and published by the Journal Appetite, which is part of Elsevier.  Here is the peer reviewed published article for your perusal: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.143

 

No research stands alone; each study builds on research that has been done before. So while our previous research had found links between music and taste, our latest study is the first in the world to take into account how much participants liked or disliked the ice cream while listening to music. This  research is important to me because it has a double scientific value. It confirms music can influence taste, and it is the first research in the world that studies the link between music and food pleasantness. It really opens a brand new world.

I have been lucky enough to be able to do this research through AUT, School of Applied Science, and their amazing team; without them this would have not been possible. I would like to thank all the other authors for their terrific efforts: Kevin Kantono, Nazimah Hamid, Daniel Shepherd, Michelle J.Y. Yoo and  B. Thomas Carr. With their generosity, talent and immense knowledge they have helped made this research possible.

The question that we tried to answer with this research is simple : Does ice cream taste the same whether you’re listening to your favourite Spotify playlist or enduring another round of your flatmate’s beloved Nickelback album? Our new research has found that how much you like the music you listen to while eating gelato can impact more than just your ears.

Eating Food and Ice cream isn’t just about taste; it always has the potential to be a multisensory sensory experience that involves sight, smell, texture, and sound.

This blog looks at the research we conducted and what we found.

Our study

We had our 45 participants listen to a minute each of 14 songs, representing different genres (blues, folk, classical, jazz, alternative, heavy metal, rock, country, religious, pop, funk, hip-hop, soul, and electronica). They indicated how much they liked the music on a 100mm line, with one end representing extreme dislike and the other extreme enjoyment of the music.

During the experiment, they tasted three chocolate gelato samples (dark, bittersweet and milk chocolate) while listening to:

  1. The song they most liked
  2. The song they most disliked
  3. The song they were most neutral about
  4. Silence

The order of the gelati flavours and sounds was chosen at random for each person.

Following instructions on a computer screen, the panelists sampled the gelati, holding it in their mouth for 25 seconds before being instructed to swallow the sample, with compulsory breaks to rinse their mouths in between each tasting.

As they sampled the gelato, participants rated how they perceived the taste. Scales for sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, sourness and umami (savoury) were displayed on the computer screen, and panelists continually recorded any changes in taste perception during a 45-second segment of music (including the aftertaste, if there was one).

Specifically, they recorded changes in the ‘dominant’ taste sensation, which was defined as the one that captured their attention at any point, was the most striking, or was the sensation that ‘popped out’ at any time, even if it wasn’t the most intense sensation. Participants also rated their emotions and feelings of pleasantness after each gelato/sound pairing.

What we found

Not surprisingly, listening to disliked music elicited more negative emotions, while liked music increased positive emotions.

Similarly, pleasantness differed across all three songs (with higher pleasantness ratings for liked music, followed by neutral and disliked music – this can also be explained by the emotions each song produced).

But we found no significant difference in pleasantness across the three types of gelato when eaten in silence. So in our study, the pleasantness of the music influenced the pleasantness of the gelati, regardless of how pleasant the gelati actually was.

Music also influenced the perceived taste of the gelati.

In comparison to silence, when our participants listened to music they didn’t like, they had higher ratings of bitterness as the dominant taste, and perceived bitterness at an earlier point in the tasting. The sensation of sweetness was also shortened or sometimes eliminated.

On the other hand, liked music saw an increase in the perception of sweetness. In the case of milk chocolate gelati paired with liked music, the perception of bitterness was absent throughout the tasting.

Overall, our study showed music can impact the taste and experience of gelati. It suggests listening to music we like may heighten our perception of the sweet flavours of the gelati and make it more pleasant to eat. On the other hand, bitter flavours may be more apparent when we listen to music we don’t enjoy. This may be because music has an impact on our mood, with liked music increasing positive emotions and disliked music increasing negative emotions.