Effects of background sound on consumers' sensory discriminatory ability among foods

- Conversation is popular and preferred in eating atmospheres.
- Individuals experience a louder atmosphere during dinner than breakfast.
- Shadowing task impaired sensory discriminatory ability between different carbonated sodas.
- The effect of background sound on sensory discrimination varied by food type.
- Conversation may alter sensory discriminatory ability between different foods/beverages.

This study aimed to examine accustomed and preferential levels of background sound in eating atmospheres across different demographics (Experiment 1) and to determine whether background sound affects the ability to discriminate overall differences between food/beverage samples (Experiment 2). A total of 244 individuals reported to experience a louder atmosphere, where individuals were more likely to interact with others, during dinner than breakfast and snack time. Furthermore, more than half (58.8%) of the respondents preferred eating while having a conversation. Only 3.7% of the respondents preferred eating in silence. In Experiment 2, 58 participants were asked to conduct overall difference tests of potato chips (original versus lightly salted) and carbonated sodas (original versus sugar free) in the presence of five sound conditions: (1) carbonation sound, (2) crisp chewing-sound, (3) classical music, (4) shadowing task, and (5) white noise. The discrimination performance was found to be less influenced by background sound in potato chips when compared to the carbonated soda, highlighting the possibility that foods with high levels of mastication sound are less susceptible to background noise. While listening to and repeating a newscast (shadowing task), 41% of the participants were able to discriminate overall sensory difference between the two different carbonated sodas, but in the presence of carbonation sound 71% of the participants were able to distinguish between the two sodas. In conclusion, our findings strengthen the claim that conversation is popular and preferred in eating atmospheres, but it may alter participants' ability to discriminate an overall difference between different foods or beverages.