Listen to this PodcastMore 60-Second Science
If you've ever dined with a stuffy nose, you know that what you smell strongly influences what you taste. But what you see matters too. Even the color of a cup can trick your taste buds. That’s according to research in the Journal of Sensory Studies. [Betina Piqueras-Fiszman and Charles Spence, The Influence of the Color of the Cup on Consumers' Perception of a Hot Beverage]
Researchers prepared store-bought hot chocolate, and served it in red, orange, white and cream-colored cups to 57 volunteers. The study subjects rated the sweetness, aroma, flavor and overall likeability of each cup of cocoa. Turns out hot chocolate in the orange cup was rated more likable and "chocolaty" than the others—even though each cup had the same stuff.
Previous studies also suggest color matters. Increasing the yellow hue of a 7-Up can, for example, makes people think the drink tastes more lemony. Likewise, researchers say the orange cup might enhance the chocolaty brown color of the cocoa, and enhance flavor. Since much more of the brain's cortex is devoted to vision than taste, what you see could matter as much as what your taste buds experience. So next time you're really savoring something, try feasting your eyes on something else—and see if the taste passes the test.
—Christopher Intagliata
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
See what we're tweeting about
2 Comments
Add CommentThe reading of the``Abstract`` shows confusing conditions applied to the research and conclusions that are not entirely in accordance with the text of the podcast.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee for yourself (the link is in the text of the podcast).
No wonder the orange cup and the more intensely yellow can should get conceived as 'more likeable' by our antedeluvial brain - it's Evolution staring us in the face! There is a clear connection between our keen primates' colour sense and our survival chances , thanks to the most appetizing fruit pigments that Nature has evolved- for the health benefit of both plants and animals, like us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor a scientificically based evidence,you can download Colorific Manifesto (youthevity.com): p. 27:
'This suggestion by Mollon, in 1989, and Walls, in 1942, that monkeys' and humans' color vision evolved for the express purpose of detecting fruit in the forest sounds reasonable when we consider the difficulty color-blind human observers have when confronted with the seemingly simple task of picking berries...' (Sensation and Perception, University of Pittsburgh, 1999)