Response to "Making Food Tastier With Music" By Larry O’Hanlon

Found at: http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/making-foods-tastier-with-music-140227

   This article discusses the effect of music on the “tastiness” of food. 99 subjects ate the same kind of chocolate while listening to four different kinds of music: classical, jazz, hip-hop, and rock. They then rated their “chocolate experience” after each case.  Researchers found that those people rated their chocolate higher while listening to jazz music, while they rated their chocolate lower while listening to hip-hop music. They also found that ratings within music genres varied between the consumer’s cultures and demographics. I find this article to be believable, but I would not go around telling restaurant owners to play jazz for their customers.

   I find these claims to be reasonable because music is a component of environment, and environment often affects people’s mood, thus leading to them having different feelings towards what they are eating. For instance, people who eat in a busy environment (fast-food restaurants) will have much more upbeat composures, thus leading to them eating quicker. While those people who eat in a more relaxed environment (a fancy restaurant) will have more relaxed composures, thus leading to them taking longer to eat. So the fact that music affects a person’s view on their food is actually not surprising. It all revolves around the influence of environment.