Did Hearing "O Canada" Make Me Want to Eat Poutine?

A while back, the author was listening to a Canadian-themed music playlist. After a few songs, he decided it was time for a snack. Instead of opting for his usual banana or corn cakes, he felt a strong urge to have some french fries covered with cheese curds and gravy (a French Canadian “delicacy” called poutine). He’d never made poutine since he moved from Canada to Britain, but had decided that he had to have some, right then and there.

After finishing the scrumptious but unhealthy snack (substituting shredded cheddar cheese for cheese curds), he wondered why he felt the need to eat poutine. Did listening to Canadian music make him more likely to want to consume something Canadian? He did some searching and came across research showing how music can influence outcomes such as food-related purchasing and perceptions of food tastes. In this blog entry, we want to share the results of some of this fascinating research with you.

In one particularly neat study, Adrian North and colleagues (1999) tested whether hearing French or German background music would influence shoppers’ tendency to purchase French or German wine in a British supermarket. Over a two-week period, traditional French and German music was played on alternate days at a display selling French and German wines. The display featured four French wines and four German wines, all matched for price and sweetness. It was found that French wines were purchased five times more often than German wines on days when French music was played, whereas German wines were purchased almost twice as often as French wines on days when German music was played.

Researchers have also tested whether different types of sounds can influence a person’s perception of a food’s taste. In one compelling demonstration, Oxford University psychologists Charles Spence and Maya Shankar (currently a Senior Advisor for the Social and Behavioral Sciences at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy), along with internationally renowned British chef Hester Blumenthal, examined whether hearing sounds of bacon frying or the sound of chickens on a farm while eating bacon and egg-flavored ice cream would influence how people described the ice cream. These researchers found that the sound of sizzling bacon led participants to rate the ice cream’s bacon flavor as particularly strong, whereas the sound of the chickens led participants to rate the ice cream’s egg flavor as particularly strong (see Spence, 2012).

Could music also affect taste perception? North (2012) conducted an experiment where participants sampled a wine while listening to one of four pieces of music. In an earlier study, North found that one piece of music was rated by listeners as “powerful and heavy”, a second as “subtle and refined”, a third as “zingy and refreshing”, and a fourth as “mellow and soft”. In the main study, participants sampled a wine (the same wine for all participants) while listening to one of the four selections of music. After drinking the wine, participants rated it on the extent to which it tasted powerful and heavy, subtle and refined, zingy and refreshing, and mellow and soft. North found that participants rated the wine in a way that matched the music they’d heard during consumption. That is, participants who had heard the powerful and heavy piece of music rated the wine as more powerful and heavy compared to participants who had heard the other pieces of music, whereas participants who heard the subtle and refined piece of music rated as the same wine as more subtle and refined compared to participants who heard the other pieces of music (the same was true for the other two conditions).

What’s behind the results of these studies? The effect of music on wine purchasing decisions is likely due to the music priming particular constructs and associations. If you are looking at a display of wine and hear French music, it makes salient the category of French wines. The effect of music on taste perception might reflect a process whereby we look to synchronize our experience across our senses (e.g., hearing frying bacon leads us to anticipate the taste of bacon). Researchers continue to debate and test the potential mechanisms underlying these fascinating effects (see North 2012; Spence & Deroy, 2013).

It’s time for a snack, and I have been listening to the Canadian band Arcade Fire. Ice cream smothered in maple syrup would probably taste great right now.

REFERENCES

North, A. C. (2012). The effect of background music on the taste of wine. British Journal of Psychology, 103, 293-301.

North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J., & McKendrick, J. (1999). The influence of in-store music on wine selections. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 271-276.

Spence, C. (2012). Managing sensory expectations concerning products and brands: Capitalizing on the potential of sound and shape symbolism. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22, 37-54.

Spence, C., & Deroy, O. (2013). On why music changes what (we think) we eat. i-Perception, 4, 137-140.