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A noisy restaurant can distract you from your dinner conversation. But all that clatter may also drown out the taste of your food, making it more bland. That's according to a study in the journal Food Quality and Preference. [A.T. Woods et al., "Effect of background noise on food perception"]
Researchers recruited 48 college students, and fitted them with headphones playing either loud white noise, soft white noise, or nothing at all. Then the participants closed their eyes and chomped on snack foods like Pringles and cookies.
Turns out the students listening to blaring static rated the chips as less salty and the cookies as less sweet—even though they were tasting the same foods as the other groups.
Previous studies have shown that sound can interfere with how the brain processes smell; the researchers say the same could be true for taste. Or, loud noise could simply divert attention from the food's flavor.
But it's not all bad news for loud restaurants. In a second study, students rated crunchy foods as crunchier in the presence of loud white noise—perhaps because it tuned them into the sound of their food. The researchers say this study may explain why airline food ain't earning any Michelin stars. Me, I think there's a little more to it than the engine noise.
—Christopher Intagliata
[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
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7 Comments
Add CommentThe article states:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Previous studies have shown ; the researchers say the same could be true for taste."
I seem to recall that it is more taste receptors in the nose that, in humans, passes for the sense of smell.
In that case it is actually more precisely stated that "sound can interfere with how the brain processes taste." While we still consider the sense provided by tasting the atmosphere to be the sense of smell, bloodhounds, for example, would likely disagree if they could argue the (somewhat trivial) point.
Correction - the article actually states:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Previous studies have shown that sound can interfere with how the brain processes smell; the researchers say the same could be true for taste."
I'm not sure how I changed that, but the rest of my comment is unchanged.
Is the reverse true. Does smell affect what we hear?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNeanderthals, having bigger noses and possibly therefore a better sense of smell than modern humans might have been inhibited in language development because he had a more highly developed sense of smell. (which interfered with his ability to proces sound.
Is it possible to quantify the relative influence of sound and smell in such synesthesia.
And what do the hearing impaired think of these results?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting. Very interesting. But "...rated the chips as less salty and the cookies as less sweet..." less salty compared to what? compared to their actual chemical sweetness? to the other groups rating of sweetness? I get what is being said but...I guess I was probably reading too deep, expecting info other than survey results. I suppose I might have blatantly stated that we're just comparing two groups here, but the article's still informative even after my confusion at the one spot.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn fact take this a bit further. Do we hear the word salty differently if we are tasting something sweet, or the word sweet differently if we are tasting something salty etc.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis might give a clue as to the synesthetic inputs to langauge.
Nice article Christopher. I agree entirely with your last statement (there's more to bland taste in airplanes than this background noise). I refer readers to an interview I had with Max Bingham, who went on to write a great article on the topic: www.24sciencenews.com/smart-science/background-noise-dampens-taste-buds-the-authors-perspective.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCheck out how our research has 'evolved' over journalists via chinese whispers too: http://www.24sciencenews.com/up-for-debate-science/opinion-morphing-stories-and-chinese-whispers-in-the-press.
Best wishes,
Andy Woods.