Influence of Sound on Sensory Perception

We live in a multisensory world in which the senses play an important role in our perception of the world around us. If one sense is dulled the overall experience of a product changes, if you take away the appearance of a product, the consumer has to rely on taste, smell, touch and sound to experience the product. Appearance plays a massive role in consumer perception, if a product doesn’t look very nice then consumers are less likely to want to eat it, hence the saying ‘we eat with our eyes’. Taste, smell and touch also play a large role in consumer perception; if one sense is dimmed then other senses are heightened to enhance the sensory experience. Most people experience reduced sense of taste and smell when they have a cold and are usually aware of the impact this has on their experience of the overall flavour of a food product. However, slightly less well known is the affect sound has on sensory perception of food and drink products and consumers are typically unaware of this relationship (Spence, 2012a). Delwiche (2003) found that consumers ranked sound as the least important attribute impacting on flavour when compared to taste, smell, temperature, texture, colour and appearance.