Self-construal priming modulates sonic seasoning

Abstract

Introduction“Sonic seasoning” is when music influences the real taste experiences of consumers. “Self-construal” is how individuals perceive, understand, and interpret themselves. Numerous studies have shown that independent and interdependent self-construal priming can affect a person's cognition and behavior; however, their moderating effect on the sonic seasoning effect remains unclear.MethodsThis experiment was a 2 (self-construal priming: independent self-construal or interdependent self-construal) × 2 (chocolate: milk chocolate or dark chocolate) × 2 (emotional music: positive emotional music or negative emotional music) mixed design, and explored the moderating role of self-construal priming and the effect of emotional music on taste by comparing participants' evaluations of chocolates while listening to positive or negative music after different levels of self-construal priming.ResultsAfter initiating independent self-construal, participants increased their ratings of milk chocolate sweetness when listening to music that elicited positive emotions, t(32) = 3.11, p = 0.004, Cohen's d = 0.54, 95% CI = [0.33, 1.61]. In contrast, interdependent self-construal priming led participants to perceive dark chocolate as sweeter when they heard positive music, t(29) = 3.63, p = 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.66, 95%CI = [0.44, 1.56].DiscussionThis study provides evidence for improving people's individual eating experience and enjoyment of food.

Evidence for Two Mechanisms to Account for the Speech to Song Illusion, the Verbal Transformation Effect, and the Sound to Music Illusion

“…There is also much research showing that music can produce strong (positive or negative) emotional responses (e.g., Arjmand, Hohagen, Paton & Rickard, 2017). The emotional responses to music can be so strong that they may also influence how one experiences the taste of food in a phenomenon known as "sonic seasoning" (e.g., Xu, Guo, Liu, Xu & Huang, 2023). Given the musical nature of the speech to song illusion and the sound to music illusion, we sought in the present study to exploit the emotional response experienced with speech and non-speech sounds, especially music, in an attempt to distinguish the two illusions from each other.…”