The influence of auditory and visual stimuli on the pleasantness of chocolate gelati

• Pleasant audio and audiovisual stimuli can enhance food pleasantness.
• A combined audio-visual stimulus can further enhance pleasantness and affective ratings.
• Psychoacoustical and psychological measures were associated with gelati pleasantness.
• Differences in pleasantness of gelati can be explained in terms of affective response.

Unrelated auditory cues may alter gustatory and hedonic perceptions to food, but it is unclear whether similar effects will be observed with congruent eating-environment sounds. This is the first experimental work to demonstrate how different eating-environment sounds, varying in quality, may influence pleasantness of food samples. In this study, trained participants (n = 90) were separated into two balanced groups. The first group provided temporal pleasantness measurements during consumption of three different chocolate gelati while listening to various eating-environment sounds, and a silent control condition. This procedure was followed using a second group though with the provision of pictures related to the eating-environment sounds. Both psychoacoustical and psychological measures of sound quality were associated with gelati pleasantness. Combined audiovisual cues further amplified pleasantness ratings compared to auditory cues only. The results are further explained in terms of the effects of mood and arousal on sensory perception. Findings from this study may assist in elucidating the real life implications of the effect of sounds on food pleasantness.