The crunch effect: Food sound salience as a consumption monitoring cue

• The impact of intrinsic auditory cues on consumption quantity is explored.
• Food sound salience leads to a decrease in consumption quantity.
• Marketers can manipulate food sound salience, thereby impacting consumption.

While a growing body of research explores the impact of normative and environmental extrinsic factors on food consumption quantity, less attention is given to the intrinsic cues, or sensory properties, of the food being consumed. Our research contributes to this growing literature by examining the effect of food sound salience (i.e., the sound that a food makes during mastication) on consumption quantity. Specifically, we show that increased attention to the sound the food makes, or food sound salience, may serve as a consumption monitoring cue leading to reduced consumption. Across three studies, we show a consistent negative relationship between the salience of a food’s sound and food intake. Our research highlights the importance of intrinsic auditory food cues on consumption. Our findings are valuable to both researchers interested in understanding how sensory cues are connected to consumption and marketers utilizing sound in their communications to consumers.