Tasting shapes and words

We report a series of quick and simple paper-and-pencil demonstrations illustrating the reliable crossmodal correspondences that people have between commercially-available food and drink items and both visually-presented shapes and nonsense words. The foodstuffs tested in this study included still and sparkling water, Brie cheese and cranberry juice, and two kinds of chocolate. Participants were given paper-based line scales, anchored at either end with a nonsense word or simple outline shape. They were instructed to taste the foodstuffs and to indicate whether their perception of the flavour matched more one or other of the items anchoring the scales, and then mark the appropriate point on the scale. The results highlight the fact that certain of these foodstuffs (sparkling water, cranberry juice, and Maltesers - chocolate-covered malt honeycomb) were better associated with angular shapes and high-pitched meaningless words, such as ‘kiki’ and ‘takete’, whose pronunciation requires sharp inflection of the mouth. By contrast, still water, Brie, and Caramel Nibbles (chocolate-covered caramel) were all more strongly associated with rounded shapes and softer sounding, lower-pitched pseudo-words, such as ‘bouba’ and ‘maluma’. These results, which build on the classic literature on ‘sound symbolism’, have both theoretical and applied implications: On the one hand, they demonstrate that the phenomenon of sound symbolism extends beyond the visual modality, by showing that speech sounds carry meaning in the domain of flavour, and in terms of the oral-somatosensory attributes of foodstuffs as well. As a consequence, these results may also be useful on an applied level in terms of helping companies to design novel brand names and graphics for the packaging of their food and drink items that best connote the likely attributes of the product within.     

Predictive packaging design: Tasting shapes,typefaces, names,and sounds

Many studies have documented that people match a variety of tastes, aromas, and flavours crossmodally to other sensory features, such as abstract shapes, names, and speech sounds. These findings have had a significant impact on how the sensory attributes of product packaging are understood and how they can contribute to product communication and hence enhance brand value. Here, we report on a study designed to assess how rounded vs. angular shapes, typefaces, and names, and high vs. low pitched sounds, can be combined in order to convey information about the taste (sweetness and sourness) of a product. Our results support the view that “sweet” tastes are better expressed by means of rounded shapes, typefaces, and names, and low-pitched sounds, whereas “sour tastes” are better conveyed by means of angular shapes, typefaces, and names, and high-pitched sounds. These results are discussed in light of the literature on crossmodal correspondences and predictive packaging design.     

Long vowel sounds induce expectations of sweet tastes

A growing body of research has demonstrated the existence of cross modal correspondences that involve tastes and sounds. For example, front vowels (e.g., /i/) and voiceless consonants (e.g., /f/) are more matched with sweetness than back vowels (e.g., /u/) and voiced consonants (e.g., /b/). However, research on taste-sound correspondences so far has focused mainly on the vowel position (e.g., front vs. back) and/or consonant types (i.e., voiced vs. voiceless). The literature on onomatopoeia and phonaesthetics suggests that vowel length (e.g. /e/ in sweeet vs. swee t) can be used to convey pleasure or euphony (e.g. sweetness) and displeasure (e.g., bitterness). This paper explores the linkages between vowel length and taste attributes. Specifically, this paper investigated the link between long (vs. short) vowel sounds and sweetness. In three studies, we demonstrate that people expect words containing long vowels (e.g., Monef [Məʊni:f]) to connote sweeter tastes than words containing short vowels (e.g., Monef [Mɒnef]). Our findings reveal the importance of vowel length in taste-sound associations, and show its linkage with the taste continuum.     

Tasting atmospherics: Taste associations with colour parameters of coffee shop interiors

Coffee is one of the world’s most frequently consumed beverages, and coffee culture is an increasingly popular phenomenon across the world. Atmospheric elements are especially important for the design of coffee shops. However, it is still unclear how the visual atmospherics (e.g., colour scheme, lightness) of coffee shop interiors influence the consumer’s evaluations of coffee shops and their expectations concerning the coffee beverages they serve. The present research was designed to understand the role of one aspect of the visual atmosphere, namely the colour parameters of the interiors of coffee shop, on the consumer evaluation of the coffee shops themselves and on the expected sensory properties of the coffees served there. Ratings of taste expectations, likelihood of visiting, and emotions were evaluated for each of 50 coffee shop images and averaged across 65 participants. The color parameters (L*, a*, b*, saturation) of the coffee shop interior were calculated using digital image analysis. The results demonstrate that more reddish and lighter coloured coffee shop images were associated with the expectation that the coffee shop would serve a sweeter coffee, while more greenish and darker coloured coffee shop images were associated with more sour/bitter/tastier coffee expectations as well as a higher likelihood of visiting. Moreover, emotions, specifically feelings of calmness, mediated the relation between color parameters and taste expectations/likelihood of visiting. Taken together, these results provide evidence on the role of visual atmospherics of coffee shops on consumer evaluations and provide a number of practical implications for the coffee outlets/cafes.     

Assessing the shapes and speech sounds that people associate with chocolate samples varying in cocoa content

We report a series of three experiments designed to highlight the reliable crossmodal correspondences that exist between the cocoa content of various commercially-available chocolate products and both visually-presented shapes and nonsense words. The chocolates tested in this study included three kinds of Lindt chocolate and a milk chocolate truffle (‘Koko’ brand from Cadbury). Participants were given paper-based line scales, anchored at either end with either a nonsense word or simple outline shape. They tasted the chocolates and indicated whether their perception of the flavor better matched one or other of the items anchoring the scales by marking the appropriate point along the scale. The results demonstrate that certain chocolates were more strongly associated with angular shapes and ‘sharp’ inflected, high-pitched meaningless words, such as ‘tuki’ and ‘takete’. Specifically, Lindt extra creamy milk chocolate (30% cocoa) and Cadbury’s Koko milk chocolate truffles were both more strongly associated with rounded shapes and softer sounding, lower-pitched pseudo-words, such as ‘maluma’. By contrast, Lindt 70% and 90% cocoa chocolates were more strongly associated with sharper (angular) shapes and sounds, such as ‘takete’. These results demonstrate that the phenomenon of sound symbolism extends beyond the visual modality into the domain of flavor perception where, in particular, speech sounds carry meaning in terms of the taste/flavor of chocolates. These results have implications for the development of novel brand names for new products (such as, in this case, chocolate) that best connote the product’s likely sensory attributes.     

Show me the color in your mind: A study of color-flavor associations in virtual reality

We conducted a virtual reality (VR) study to examine the color that first came to a person’s mind when he or she was drinking tea. The participants were asked to drink Chinese green or red tea without any visual cues, and then to show the first color in their mind on a circle or a cup of tea in VR. The results revealed that they were able to detect the difference in the bitterness and astringency of the two types of tea. Despite variations in the specific colors chosen by different individuals, their color responses for Chinese green tea were more greenish than those for Chinese red tea, thus indicative of some associations between the green–red component of color and the bitterness and astringency. Moreover, the results also revealed that the color responses made on the virtual tea were more similar to the actual color of tea beverages than those made on the virtual circle, suggesting that the participants may rely on a concrete object to exemplify a given flavor they experienced without visual cues. These results provide novel findings about color-flavor associations for complicated and subtle flavors, and shed some light on how to modulate the participants’ color-flavor associations via modifying the food or drink that they bring up to their mind to exemplify a certain flavor.     

Sounds sweet,sounds bitter: How the presence of certain sounds in a brand name can alter expectations about the product’s taste

This paper examines how certain speech sounds within a brand name can alter expectations about the product’s taste. Across two studies we demonstrate that the presence of voiced (b, d, g, z & v) vs. voiceless (p, t, k, s & f) obstruents (speech sounds produced when airflow is obstructed in the oral cavity) in a chocolate’s brand name can alter its expected taste as bitter vs. sweet. We propose this is because voiced obstruents are typically of low frequency (frequency code hypothesis), contain harsh acoustic qualities and evoke negativity (due to aerodynamic difficulties in their pronunciation). In a third study, we extend these findings to show, using the Brand Personality Scale (BPS), that the presence of voiced (vs. voiceless) obstruents makes brand names' sound more masculine, rugged and tough and less honest, charming, glamorous, wholesome, cheerful and sentimental. Research linking consonant sound symbolism (specifically voiced obstruents) and product attributes is sparse. Most research in this field links vowels withproduct attributes, sounds with shapes and music (or musical notes) with taste attributes. We contribute by extending these findings to voicing (and associated harshness) and the sweet-bitter continuum of the expected taste.     

A bittersweet symphony: Systematically modulating the taste of food by changing the sonic properties of the soundtrack playing in the background

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.     

The influence of taste-congruent soundtracks on visual attention and food choice: A cross-cultural eye-tracking study in Chinese and Danish consumers

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.     

A sound brand name: The role of voiced consonants in pharmaceutical branding

Given the worldwide growth of the over-the-counter (OTC) drug market and the increase in the direct-to-consumer advertising of medicines, pharmaceutical branding has become an increasingly important component affecting the consumer’s beliefs about, and hence their responses towards, OTC medicines. The brand name is one of the most important external cues for brand evaluation and influences various aspects of consumer-brand association (e.g., perceived quality/efficacy, brand attitude, and brand image). Although sound symbolism, which refers to the non-arbitrary association that exists between particular sound sequences and specific meanings in speech, has proven to be an effective means of creating successful brand names in a wide range of products, surprisingly little attention has been paid to its application in the case of pharmaceutical branding. In this study, we systematically investigated whether and how consonants in drug brand names influence consumers’ medicine expectancies (e.g., medicinal power, long-lasting efficacy). Across three experiments, a robust effect of voiced (vs. voiceless) consonants present in brand names on the perceived potency and activity for target medicines was found. In addition, the results also revealed that voiced (vs. voiceless) consonants increase the expectancies of medicine effectiveness, duration of medicine activity, price, and potential side effects. Furthermore, we found that the perceived potency and activity for brand names significantly mediated the effect of voiced consonants. Taken together, these findings enhance our understanding of the role of consonant sound symbolism in brand name development and can potentially help pharmaceutical firms to create appropriate brand names that can effectively communicate information concerning a medicine’s properties.