The influence of music on the perception of taste

Abstract

The auditory characteristics of a musical composition can be matched in a congruent manner with the basic tastes affecting the way consumers perceive them. Based on this evidence, the present study was developed to extend the understanding of crossmodal interactions between gustatory and auditory stimuli—namely, the influence of music on sweet and sour basic tastes intensity. For this purpose, two musical compositions congruent with sweet and sour basic tastes were selected. The gustatory stimulus chosen was a real food (passion fruit mousse) having these two basic tastes. Sensory tests were performed upon a participants screening using basic tastes recognition tests and familiarization with the used scale. Each participant experienced the same dessert in three different conditions, in random order: i) control, in which the dessert was tasted in silence; ii) condition A, in which the dessert was tasted while listening to sweet music, that expectably would enhance the sweet taste and iii) condition B, in which the dessert was tasted while listening to sour music, that expectably would enhance the sour taste. Results demonstrated that the same dessert was perceived differently when participants were exposed to different auditory stimuli, validating the music's influence on the tasting experience. Furthermore, it was verified that crossmodal music-taste correspondences with the sour taste were stronger and showed a significant effect. Sweet music, by contrast, did not increase the sweet taste of the dessert. However, it decreased the intensity of sour taste, suggesting a different approach to crossmodal correspondences between music and taste.