Auditory Contributions to Food Perception and Consumer Behaviour

What we hear before and/or while we eat and drink often affects our tasting experiences. The focus of Auditory Contributions to Food Perception and Consume Behaviour is to provide a state-of-the-art summary on how such music and ambient inputs can influence our expectations, our purchasing behaviour, as well as our product experience. Much of the research collected together in this volume relates to ‘sonic seasoning’: This is where music/soundscapes are especially chosen, or else designed/composed, in order to correspond to, and hence hopefully to modify the associated taste/aroma/mouthfeel/flavour in food and beverages. The various chapters collected together in this volume provide a state-of-the-art summary of this intriguing and emerging field of research, as well as highlighting some of the key directions for future research. Contributors are Sue Bastian, Thadeus L. Beekman, Jo Burzynska, Andrew Childress, Ilja Croijmans, Silvana Dakduk , Alexandra Fiegel, Apratim Guha, Ryuta Kawashima, Bruno Mesz, Kosuke Motoki, Rui Nouchi, Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho, Pablo Riera, Marijn Peters Rit, Toshiki Saito, Han-Seok Seo, Mariano Sigman, Laura J. Speed, Charles Spence, Motoaki Sugiura, Marcos Trevisan, Carlos Velasco, Johan Wagemans, and Qian Janice Wang.

Charles Spence (PhD) is a professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University. His prize-wining research investigates the factors that influence what we eat and what we think about the experience. He is the author of the international bestseller Gastrophysics: The new science of eating (2017; Penguin Viking) – winner of the 2019 Le Grand Prix de la Culture Gastronomique, and Multisensory Packaging Design (2019; Palgrave MacMillan).

Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho, PhD, is an assistant professor at Universidad de los Andes School of Management (Colombia). He designs experiences blending experiential marketing and multisensory perception. He holds invited scholar positions at KU-Leuven and IAE-Angers.

Qian Janice Wang, PhD, is an assistant professor at Aarhus University’s Department of Food Science. She researches how contextual factors, especially background music, influences people’s relationship with food. Her work has been covered in publications such as the Financial Times, The Economist, La Revue du Vin de France, and Le Figaro.

Carlos Velasco is an associate professor at the Marketing Department, BI Norwegian Business School, where he co-founded the Center for Multisensory Marketing. His work on multisensory experiences is at the intersection between psychology, marketing, and human-computer interaction.