“Having a drink in a bar”: An immersive approach to explore the effects of context on drink choice

This paper aims to evaluate the effect of context on food choices. Two studies are presented to test the potential of an immersive approach to help understanding contextual influences on drink choices. To generate contextual effects, two bar-like environments based on the idea of “having a drink in a bar” were created: one with wood furniture and one with blue furniture. In both immersive bars, clips with visual and music stimuli were projected on a wall to change the overall warmth of the ambience. In the first study, five different clips were projected. Participants in the immersive bars had to choose a drink within a large range of drinks for each projected clip. Results showed that these elements were sufficient to have an influence on declarative drink choices. Beverages were selected according to perceptual, semantic or cognitive associations between the drink and the clips. The second study was designed to evaluate the robustness of the method. Participants had to choose between five beers in one ambience. Again results showed that drink choices were different according to the ambience. These findings suggest that the immersive approach presented in this paper might be a good tool to explore the integrated influence of contextual variables on food and drink choices.

► Investigation of contextual effect on drink choices with an immersive approach.
► Creation of two immersive bars evoking different levels of warmth.
► Drink choices in the immersive bars made according to perceptual or semantic associations.
► The immersive bars seem to be a good tool to explore contextual influences on drink choices.