Changes in flavour, emotion, and electrophysiological measurements when consuming chocolate ice cream in different eating environments
Introduction
The sensory testing of food is often carried out in a laboratory setting in order to accurately analyse the sensory attributes of products (e.g., see Pound, Duizer, & McDowell, 2000). However, in real life, people consume foods in a host of different eating environments, that are mostly typically far removed from that of the science laboratory. However, sensory testing in a controlled environment such as a sensory laboratory might not provide a good indication of food perception as consumption takes place under highly controlled conditions (Hersleth et al., 2005, Kim et al., 2016; see Spence, 2017a, for a review). Most research has shown that consuming food in a central test location (Hersleth et al., 2003, Petit and Sieffermann, 2007, Pound et al., 2000), in the home (Daillant-Spinnler and Issanchou, 1995, Kozlowska et al., 2003, Pound et al., 2000, Zhang, 2017), and in immersive environments (Bangcuyo et al., 2015, Hathaway and Simons, 2017) result in significantly higher hedonic ratings than when a laboratory environment is used. These studies confirm that food consumption in everyday eating environments may well have more ecological validity than offered by laboratory testing (Kim et al., 2016, Pound et al., 2000). In view of all that has been mentioned so far, one may suppose that the flavour of food and drink may change when eating in different environments. That change might be in terms of either the sensory-discriminative and/or the hedonic response.
Studies on how eating environments influence food perception have mainly focused on acceptability (Bangcuyo et al., 2015, Bell et al., 1994, Jiang et al., 2017, King et al., 2004), and eating behaviour (Stroebele & De Castro, 2004). Very little published research has investigated temporal changes in flavour perception in different eating environments. To date, only Kantono et al. (2018) have investigated the effect of music on flavour dynamics under different environmental conditions (laboratory, immersive, and natural eating environment). The authors demonstrated that cocoaness, sweetness, and milkiness were cited more in the natural eating environment than in the laboratory setting, and bitterness and creaminess were least cited. In addition, it was found that music varying in valence evoked emotions, which influenced the temporal sensory attributes of chocolate gelati in the different eating environments. Flavour perception can be influenced by mood state (i.e., hedonic tone of pleasantness; Seo & Hummel, 2010) and heightened emotional state (Woods et al., 2011, Wang and Spence, 2018). Thus, understanding the relationship between consumer emotions and sensory food perception is important as it may potentially provide a better understanding of consumers’ product experiences (Spinelli & Monteleone, 2018).
A number of different sensory science approaches have been developed to assess the emotions associated with food. Most studies use questionnaires that comprise a forced yes/no variant of CATA questions (Cardello & Jaeger, 2016). Valence and arousal are important descriptive features of all emotions that characterise the core level of affect (Barrett, 2016). Emotional valence illustrates the extent to which an emotion is positive or negative, while arousal indicates the strength of the associated emotional state (Russell, 2003). More objective physiological measures known to covary with emotional states (i.e., cardiovascular, respiratory, and skin conductance responses) can also be used. Electrophysiological measurements can covary with food-related emotions (Nijs, Franken, & Muris, 2010). Subjective measures of emotions can be supplemented by measuring autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity that controls organ functions via parasympathetic (relaxation) and sympathetic (activation) branches, which can influence and reflect emotional responses (Kreibig, 2010). Wioleta (2013) reported that physiological signals like blood volume pulse (BVP), blood pressure (BP), skin conductance (SC), and heart rate (HR) can be informative when analysing participants’ emotions. Kantono et al. (2019) postulated that an affective mechanism mediated the relationship between music valence and the perception of chocolate gelato. Their study successfully demonstrated the use of electrophysiology measures to augment subjective measurements of emotion in order to explain the temporal changes in perceptions of chocolate gelato while listening to music varying in valence. They reported that both of these measures were robust predictors of changes in flavour perception of gelato while listening to music. The authors explained that an affective (or ‘emotion’) mechanism mediated the relationship between music valence and the perception of gelato, and suggested that the use of electrophysiological measures could be used to augment subjective measurements of emotion.
A consumer’s emotional state can be influenced by the environment in which consumption is taking place (Edwards & Gustafsson, 2008), for instance, due to lighting, background music, spatial layout, and/or temperature (Heung & Gu, 2012). According to the Mehrabian and Russell (1974) model (M-R), participants’ emotional responses (i.e., arousal, dominance, and pleasure) can be influenced by environmental factors such as colour, odour, texture, sound, and temperature. Recent studies have demonstrated that restaurant atmospherics have a significant effect on the emotions of consumers in terms of positive emotions (Jang and Namkung, 2009, Jang et al., 2011, Jeong and Jang, 2011, Prayag et al., 2014), arousal (Hyun and Kang, 2014, Ryu and Jang, 2007) and pleasure (Kim & Moon, 2009; see Spence, 2017a, for a review). Danner et al. (2016) further demonstrated that positive emotions were rated significantly higher in the restaurant environment after consuming wine compared to consuming in the home and laboratory environments. These researchers attributed the latter results to the social interactions that participants had in the restaurant. Additionally, Schouteten, De Steur, Sas, De Bourdeaudhuij, and Gellynck (2017) reported that positive emotions were rated significantly higher at home when consuming yogurt as compared to when in the sensory laboratory. Dorado, Chaya, Tarrega, and Hort (2016) further showed that positive emotions were significantly increased, and negative emotions significantly decreased, when drinking beer in central locations with freely-elicited scenarios (i.e., talking with friends) as compared to the control environment. From these studies, it is evident that emotional experiences of consumers vary in different eating environments. It is hypothesised that these changes may, in turn, influence the multisensory perception of the flavour of ice cream.
Researchers have investigated how environmental factors influence electrophysiological processes. For example, noisy environments with public transport have been shown to increase BP (Belojevic et al., 2008, Dratva et al., 2012, Kjellgren and Buhrkall, 2010, Paunović et al., 2014), HR (Belojevic et al., 2008), and SC (Alvarsson, Wiens, & Nilsson, 2010). Environments near shopping centres (Dubowitz et al., 2012) and pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods (Dubowitz et al., 2012, Li et al., 2009), by contrast, lead to a significant decrease in BP instead. As electrophysiological measures typically correlate with an individual’s emotional state, these studies indicate that environmental factors can induce negative and positive emotions alongside changes in physiological response. Speculatively, then, the types of environments in which the consumer finds themselves will likely also influence their perception of food.
It is evident, then, that studies have now convincingly demonstrated that different eating environments can affect consumers’ hedonic, emotional, and electrophysiological responses. Hence, the specific objective of the present study is to determine how the temporal aspects of flavour perception, consumer emotion, and electrophysiological measurements are influenced by the laboratory and real eating environments when consuming chocolate ice cream. It was hypothesized that different eating environments would influence affective states that would, in turn, result in temporal changes in the multisensory perception of ice cream. The relationship between sensory, emotion, and ANS measures obtained after consuming ice cream in the different eating environments will then be further evaluated.
Section snippets
Experimental procedure
The flow chart shown in Fig. 1 depicts the experimental design used in this research. Chocolate ice cream was consumed by participants in four different environments as shown in Fig. 2: (a) sensory testing laboratory, (b) café, (c) bus stop, and (d) university study area. In each environment, electrophysiological, sensory and emotional measures were obtained. First, electrophysiological measurements were obtained while the participants were seated comfortably in each environment for a 5-min
Psychoacoustic characteristics of the soundscapes
The psychoacoustical characteristics of sounds in the different eating environments are presented in Table 3. The café soundscape had the highest sharpness, tonality, and fluctuation strength values as compared to the bus stop, university study area and laboratory environments. In addition, the bus stop soundscape had the highest roughness followed by café, laboratory and the university study area environments.
Temporal dominance of sensations
Fig. 4 depicts the spline smoothed TDS curves describing the dominance rate of
Dominance of ice cream flavour perception varied in the different eating environments
Results from this study have demonstrated that ice cream flavour perception was affected by the consumption environment. In the laboratory, chocolate ice cream was initially dominated by sweetness and creaminess at the start of consumption and then roasted and cocoa at the end. Kantono et al. (2018) recently reported that bittersweet chocolate gelato was initially perceived as sweet and creamy when eaten in a quiet laboratory environment.
Cocoa flavour was dominant in both the café and study
Conclusion
This study set out to determine how emotions and electrophysiological measures influenced temporal changes in the perception of the flavour of chocolate ice cream consumed in different eating environments. The dominant flavour attributes of ice cream were found to vary in different environments, in particular, covarying with affective dimensions, emotions and electrophysiological measures. Consumption of ice cream in the different eating environments influenced temporal changes in flavour, the
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the School of Science at AUT for PBRF funds to support this research.
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