TY - JOUR

T1 - The influence of taste-congruent soundtracks on visual attention and food choice

T2 - A cross-cultural eye-tracking study in Chinese and Danish consumers

AU - Peng-Li, Danni

AU - Byrne, Derek V.

AU - Chan, Raymond C.K.

AU - Wang, Qian Janice

N1 - Funding Information: The research was supported by the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Aarhus University and the Sino-Danish Center of Education and Research (DPL) as well as the Dean’s Starting Grant, Aarhus University (QJW). The authors would like to thank Kiara Heide and Tue Hvass from the iMotions® Customer Success Team for facilitating the eye-tracking design and pre-processing of data, Signe Lund Matthiesen and Steve Keller for helping with the musical composition of the soundtracks, as well as Trine Enig and Yihang Huang for assisting the participant recruitment. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Sound can have a profound impact on our eating experience and behavior. The term “sonic seasoning”, arising from crossmodal correspondences, denotes the tendency for soundtracks with congruent taste/flavor attributes to alter people's food perception. However, the implicit behavior effects of such sound-taste correspondence have not yet been tested. Employing eye-tracking technology, the current study explored the influence of custom-composed taste-congruent soundtracks on visual attention to food, and how this audio-visual relationship differs across cultures. Seventy-two participants (37 Chinese; 35 Danish) were each exposed to three sound conditions (“sweet music”, “salty music”, no music) while observing different food items in a choice paradigm. Across both cultures, participants spent more time fixating on sweet food while listening to “sweet music” and salty food when listening to “salty music”, while no differences were observed in the no music condition. Danish participants had, regardless of sound condition, longer fixation times on the food images compared to their Chinese counterparts. Participants’ choices in each sound condition were consistent with fixation time spent, implying a clear congruency effect between music and choice behavior. Our findings provide evidence of how specifically tailored music can guide consumers’ visual attention to specific food items, suggesting that the brain indeed integrates multiple streams of sensory information during decision-making. The cross-cultural aspect of our study can ultimately be valuable for understanding auditory nudging in different market segments.

AB - Sound can have a profound impact on our eating experience and behavior. The term “sonic seasoning”, arising from crossmodal correspondences, denotes the tendency for soundtracks with congruent taste/flavor attributes to alter people's food perception. However, the implicit behavior effects of such sound-taste correspondence have not yet been tested. Employing eye-tracking technology, the current study explored the influence of custom-composed taste-congruent soundtracks on visual attention to food, and how this audio-visual relationship differs across cultures. Seventy-two participants (37 Chinese; 35 Danish) were each exposed to three sound conditions (“sweet music”, “salty music”, no music) while observing different food items in a choice paradigm. Across both cultures, participants spent more time fixating on sweet food while listening to “sweet music” and salty food when listening to “salty music”, while no differences were observed in the no music condition. Danish participants had, regardless of sound condition, longer fixation times on the food images compared to their Chinese counterparts. Participants’ choices in each sound condition were consistent with fixation time spent, implying a clear congruency effect between music and choice behavior. Our findings provide evidence of how specifically tailored music can guide consumers’ visual attention to specific food items, suggesting that the brain indeed integrates multiple streams of sensory information during decision-making. The cross-cultural aspect of our study can ultimately be valuable for understanding auditory nudging in different market segments.

KW - Cross-culture

KW - Crossmodal correspondences

KW - Eye-tracking

KW - Food choice

KW - Music

U2 - 10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.103962

DO - 10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.103962

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85084426913

VL - 85

JO - Food Quality and Preference

JF - Food Quality and Preference

SN - 0950-3293

M1 - 103962

ER -