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Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
The Fat Duck Restaurant, Bray Oxford, UK
c
Firmenich Research, Geneva, Switzerland
b
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 15 August 2007
Received in revised form 7 February 2008
Accepted 24 February 2008
Available online 4 March 2008
Keywords:
Flavour
Hedonics
Expectancy
a b s t r a c t
Our experience of avour involves integration of multiple sensory inputs, and the hedonic evaluation of
this complex avour experience is important in determination of food choice. The appearance of food also
generates expectations about food avour, and past work suggests that these expectations if conrmed
enhance the avour experience. What is less clear is what happens when cues prior to ingestion predict
a avour which is in marked contrast to the actual avour characteristics. To test this, we conducted three
experiments where expectations about food avour were generated by plausible but inaccurate food
labels for a highly novel food, smoked-salmon ice-cream. In Experiment 1, the experience of the food
in the mouth generated strong dislike when labelled as ice-cream, but acceptance when labelled as frozen
savoury mousse. Labelling the food as ice-cream also resulted in stronger ratings of how salty and
savoury the food was than when labelled as a savoury food. Experiment 2 conrmed these ndings,
and also found that an uninformative label also resulted in acceptable liking ratings. Experiment 3 explicitly tested the effect of labels on avour expectation, and conrmed that the ice-cream label generated
strong expectations of a sweet, fruity avour, consistent with the visual appearance of the ice-cream,
but in marked contrast to the avour of salty sh. As in Experiments 1 and 2, liking was minimal when
the food was tasted after the ice-cream label condition, but liking was acceptable in the other label conditions. These data show that the contrast between expected and actual sensory qualities can result in a
strong negative affective response and enhancement of the unexpected sensory qualities.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Although the senses are anatomically separate, they rarely
operate independently since the majority of stimuli in the environment stimulate multiple senses. The increased recognition that our
sensory experience reects integration of these multiple sensory
inputs has been applied to many experiences, most notably in
the current context to our experience of food avour (e.g., Delwiche, 2004; Keast, Dalton, & Breslin, 2004; Small, Jones-Gotman, Zatorre, Petrides, & Evans, 1997). Although the experience of the
sensory qualities of a food are often described in terms of how it
tastes, in practice this experience of avour is a complex interaction between multiple sensory experiences. Arguably, multi-sensory integration may be at its most extreme in the case of
avour perception since few other experiences offer the opportunity for concomitant stimulation of all the major senses: gustation
through the ve primary tastes, olfaction through both ortho- and
retronasal stimulation of olfactory receptors by volatile com* Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1273 678617; fax: +44 1273 678058.
E-mail address: martin@sussex.ac.uk (M.R. Yeomans).
0950-3293/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2008.02.009
566
appropriate visual cues, the actual olfactory quality of the wine had
little impact on the way in which the wine odour was described,
with instead the colour predominating. Likewise, explicit detection
of both food-related and non-food odours was enhanced when the
odour was presented alongside a congruent picture (e.g., ice-cream
picture presented with vanillin, see Gottfried, & Dolan, 2003), and
likewise speed and accuracy of odour detection was faster for congruent odour-colour pairings (e.g., strawberry odour and pink colour) than for incongruent pairings (Luisa Dematte, Sanabria, &
Spence, 2006). One explanation for these effects is that the visual
cue sets up an expectation of the avour to be experienced in the
mouth as a consequence of past associations between the visual
appearance and perceived avour of similar food stimuli. Indeed,
it has been argued that such associations are likely to be memorised without any explicit attention or learning (Koster, Prescott,
& Koster, 2004), highlighting further the key role of memory in
developing food-based expectancies (Mojet, & Koster, 2005).
An important methodology in examining the role of expectations in determining our experience of avour has been to manipulate the congruence between pre-ingestive visual and cognitive
cues and the actual sensory quality (taste and/or odour) once the
sample has been ingested, extrapolating the exploration of the effects of congruence in interactions between tastes and odours
(Frank, & Byram, 1988; Labbe, Damevin, Vaccher, Morgenegg, &
Martin, 2006). In most circumstances, visual cues will be a reliable
indicator of the actual avour quality of a food, both in terms of
overall recognition of the nature of the food and also whether
the food is in an appropriate state to be ingested. However, when
there is a lack of congruence between the expected and actual sensory quality of a food, this may lead to perceptual confusion and so
alter the sensory experience itself.
Alongside a clear literature on the extent to which visual
appearance may alter our ability to identify, and to some extent
modify the sensory quality of a food or drink, the extent to which
expectations about avour also modify our hedonic evaluation of a
food has also received attention (Cardello, 2007; Deliza, & Mace,
1996). Actual food choice often occurs based on written or verbal
description of a food, even before the actual food has been seen.
Thus, in restaurants our choice is based on expectations of liking
for avours implicit in descriptions of the potential foods on offer,
with the expectation that the description and actual sensory quality will be congruent. In relation to food avour, congruence has
been dened as the extent to which two stimuli are appropriate
for combination in a food product (Schifferstein, & Verlegh,
1996), and has been widely used to denote the impact of perceptual similarity between elements in food avour on changes in sensory quality. For example, perceptual similarity between an odour
and taste was a good predictor of taste intensity (Frank, Shaffer, &
Smith, 1991).
Expectations about the sensory quality of a stimulus can alter
liking and perception of that stimulus in two contrasting ways.
Firstly, the sensed and expected sensory qualities may combine,
so resulting in actual evaluations which are closer to the expected
evaluation than is seen when the same item is evaluated without
prior expectation. These outcome can be explained by assimilation
theory, rst proposed in relation to attitudinal change in social
psychology (Hovland, Harvey, & Sherif, 1957), where attitudes
are adjusted by prior expectation. In relation to perception of the
qualities of food stimuli, many studies have reported assimilation
effects, both in relation to affective (liking) evaluations and sensory
evaluations (Cardello, & Sawyer, 1992; Deliza, & Mace, 1996; Kahkonen, Tuorila, & Rita, 1996; Lange, Rousseau, & Issanchou, 1999;
Schifferstein, Kole, & Mojet, 1999; Tuorila, Cardello, & Lesher,
1994). For example, verbal descriptions which implied that a product (pomegranate juice) was very pleasant (e.g. the statement that
the product scored 8.1 on a 9 point liking scale) or very unpleasant
(e.g., that it scored 1.9 on a 9 point liking scale) generated expectations in line with these ratings (Cardello, & Sawyer, 1992). Accordingly, a positive expectation lead to a small increase in actual rated
liking on tasting the product (assimilation) although an expectation of a disliked avour had minimal effects on actual liking for
the tasted product. Effects on sensory qualities were clearer: being
told that a product had a bitter taste increased rated bitterness on
tasting, while expectations of low bitterness tended to decrease
bitterness evaluations. The authors concluded that the study provided evidence for the assimilation model: actual and expected
sensory experience combined to generate the overall avour experience and liking. In relation to evaluation of liking, recent research
conducted under semi-naturalistic conditions in a cafeteria supports the idea of assimilation. Thus, the use of evocative descriptive
menu names resulted in stronger positive evaluations of the food
after it had been consumed than when the same food had been labelled by nutritionally accurate but non-evocative names (Wansink, van Ittersum, & Painter, 2005). Likewise, labelling a tomato
soup with a name implying a higher quality (e.g., Gastronomes
Connoisseurs Choice Cream of Tomato relative to McTaggarts
Lean and Low Tomato) resulted in signicantly higher hedonic
ratings for the same soup regardless of actual nutrient content
(Yeomans, Lartamo, Procter, Lee, & Gray, 2001), and also resulted
in higher ratings of creaminess of the soup.
In the examples above, actual evaluations of foods generally
changed to be more in line with the expected quality even though
there was a discrepancy between the expected and actual qualities
of these stimuli. However, as discussed earlier, although most
studies of effects of expectations on evaluations of foods result in
assimilation, in some cases such discrepancies can lead to a decrease in the rated quality (contrast effect) rather than assimilation
For example, a strong expectation that an unusual breath freshener
(Jintan) had a pleasant taste (ie was a form of Japanese candy) resulted in markedly lower liking ratings than when Jintan was assessed without expectation (Zellner, Strickhouser, & Tornow,
2001).
A key question is then what determines whether information
about a product leads to an enhanced evaluation (assimilation)
or a decrease (contrast)? Recent reviews suggest a number of factors may be important (Cardello, 2007; Schifferstein, 2001). Firstly,
the size of the discrepancy: where the difference between actual
and expected qualities are small, the difference may not be noted,
and so assimilation takes place, whereas if the discrepancy is large,
contrast may occur. This effect is captured well by the affect expectation model (Wilson, Lisle, Kraft, & Wetzel, 1989). Where the discrepancy is not apparent, the expectation is no longer a point of
reference and so is not directly compared with the actual qualities.
In relation to food, several studies report ndings consistent with
this idea (see Cardello, 2007 for review). A second factor is the
strength of the expectation: even where there is a large discrepancy between expected and actual properties, assimilation may occur if the expectation is very strong. In relation to food, an
important test of these ideas was reported by Zellner et al.
(2001). Their participants evaluated two novel foods, Jintan and
guanabana nectar, with expectation about liking manipulated by
the information provided beforehand. Assimilation occurred where
expectation were based on specic information about the nature of
the food (e.g., where participants assessing Jintan were told that
other assessors had rated this as very disliked), even when the extent of the expected dislike was much greater than that seen when
the food was evaluated without prior expectations, but contrast
was seen where the expectation and actual experience were very
different. The ndings by Zellner and colleagues are important
since they contrast with a larger literature suggesting assimilation
is the normal response to disconrmed expectancies with food,
discussed earlier. One reason for this may be that most previous
567
2.1.3. Participants
The participants were an untrained panel of 32 assessors (24
women and 8 men) selected from staff and students at the University of Sussex who had previously shown an interest in studies
relating to ingestion. Potential volunteers were contacted through
email, and were informed that the study simply involved evaluation of a novel ice-cream. Volunteers who had diabetes, had any
known or suspected food allergy or had a prior diagnosis of an eating disorder were excluded, and the study was described as unsuitable for vegetarians. The participants were the rst 32 respondents
who met the study criteria. Participants were assigned at random
to either an informed ICE-CREAM or informed SAVOURY group,
while ensuring the same gender ratio (there were 16 participants,
12 women and 4 men, in each condition). The two groups did not
differ signicantly in age.
2. Experiment 1
2.1. Method
2.1.2. Design
The study used a between-subjects design to contrast hedonic
and sensory evaluations of a novel food (smoked-salmon icecream) depending on whether this was presented to assessors as
ice-cream or frozen savoury mousse.
2.1.5. Procedure
Participants attended for a single tasting session, which was
conducted between 1445 and 1600 h in small, air-conditioned
windowless cubicles in the Ingestive Behaviour Unit at Sussex
University, having been instructed to refrain from eating and to
drink only water for the two hours prior to testing. All data were
collected using Sussex Ingestion Pattern Monitor software (see
568
Fig. 1. Rated pleasantness (A), saltiness (B), strength of avour (C) and bitterness (D) of smoked salmon ice-cream depending on whether this was labelled as frozen savoury
mousse or ice-cream. Data are mean SEM.
ICE-CREAM condition
SAVOURY condition
Full
Hunger
Thirst
Nauseous
Nervous
239.1 18.9
192.4 25.9
242.5 26.9
65.7 27.6
157.2. 28.3
231.7 27.1
203.5 30.7
234.3 26.5
65.5 24.5
152.9 29.4
Age
BMI
Gender (F/M)
Control
Ice-cream
Savoury
21.3 1.0
22.7 0.6
12/3
21.4 0.7
22.1 0.6
11/3
21.1 0.5
22.6 0.5
11/4
569
570
Fig. 2. Rated pleasantness (A), saltiness (B) and strength of avour (C) of smoked salmon ice-cream depending on whether this was labelled as ice-cream, frozen savoury
mousse or a neutral food (Control). Data are mean SEM.
4. Experiment 3
4.1. Method
Average sensory and hedonic evaluations of the expected avour of the salmon ice-cream in the three conditions are summarised in Table 3. These data conrm that the label applied to the
4.1.1. Design
A between-subjects design was used to contrast anticipatory
and actual hedonic and sensory evaluations of the same novel food
(smoked salmon ice-cream) in the three label conditions used in
Experiment 2 (ICE-CREAM, SAVOURY and CONTROL).
Table 3
Expected sensory and hedonic evaluations of the salmon ice-cream in the three label
conditions in Experiment 3
4.1.2. Participants
The participants were 60 untrained assessors, 48 women and 12
men. The recruitment was the same as that in Experiment 2, and
participants were assigned at random to the three conditions, with
20 participants in each condition.
4.1.3. Procedure and test food
The same test food was used as in Experiments 1 and 2. However, in this case when the food was rst presented, participants
rstly made the same set of evaluations as in the previous studies
but based purely on the appearance of the food. The food was
placed towards the back of the test table and participants were instructed to base their evaluations on the appearance alone during
Evaluation
Pleasant
Savoury
Salty
Sweet
Creamy
Fruity
Bitter
Sour
Strong
Condence
Label condition
Ice-cream
Savoury
mousse
Food 386
375a 13
50a 8
31a 6
340a 28
389a 13
322a 15
87 17
56 13
256a 15
329a 17
241b 23
482c 5
323b 30
89c 13
314 b 18
76c 13
104 17
62 11
387b 11
284a 19
258b 18
121b 19
69a 17
275 b 19
320b 16
225b 26
118 20
47 9
300a 20
146b 25
Main effect of
condition1
p < 0.001
p < 0.001
p < 0.001
p < 0.001
p < 0.01
p < 0.001
NS
NS
p < 0.001
p < 0.001
571
Table 4
Sensory and hedonic evaluations of the salmon ice-cream in the three label conditions
in Experiment 3
Evaluation
Pleasant
Savoury
Salty
Sweet
Creamy
Fruity
Bitter
Sour
Strong
Label condition
Ice-cream
Savoury
mousse
Food 386
21a 8
434 9
412a 11
28a 9
363 11
16 5
135 23
171 23
439 11
145b 24
407 16
361b 16
86b 19
355 9
32 13
84 13
113 15
410 13
140b 29
393 11
388ab 11
83b 20
351 13
24 8
121 20
121 24
405 12
Main effect of
condition1
p < 0.001
NS
p < 0.05
p < 0.05
NS
NS
NS
NS
NS
Fig. 3. Expected and actual pleasantness (A) and sweetness (B) of smoked salmon ice-cream depending on whether this was labelled as ice-cream, frozen savoury mousse or a
neutral food (Control). Data are mean SEM.
572
ings of avour strength and saltiness for the food when labelled as
ice-cream.The implication is that the ice-cream label generated
a strong expectation of a sweet, fruity avour, and the surprise of a
strong, salty sh-avoured food resulted in very low pleasantness
ratings (many participants verbally described the food as disgusting). Experiment 3 explicitly measured expected and actual evaluations, and conrmed the interpretation of Experiments 1 and 2
that the ice-cream label did generate an expectation of a sweet,
fruity avour, which then contrasted strongly with the actual
experience of salty sh.
Although past research has shown that expectations generated
by food labels can modify liking for food avours, the majority of
these studies have found assimilation of the expected and actual
experience (Cardello, Maller, Masor, Dubose, & Edelman, 1985;
Cardello, & Sawyer, 1992; Wansink et al., 2005). However the present study demonstrates that where the expected and actual sensory experience are very different (i.e., the contrast of an
expectation for sweet and fruity relative to actual salty sh), the
disconrmed expectation leads to a strong contrast effect, and consequent dislike and rejection of the test food, adding to the very
few studies reporting contrast effects with food stimuli (e.g., Cardello, & Sawyer, 1992; Zellner et al., 2001). Thus where the difference between expectation and actual sensory quality was very
large, the experience was highly unpleasant even for a food that
could be perceived as pleasant on its own (the pleasantness ratings
for the salmon ice-cream in the conditions other than ice-cream
were close to neutral, 250 on the hedonic scale used here). Thus
where expectations were disconrmed and the actual sensory
experience was highly novel and surprising, the reaction was one
of extreme dislike. Although these conditions would rarely be
experienced by a consumer in real-life, the extent to which expectations inuenced liking in the present context demonstrate the
potential for expectations to moderate hedonic evaluation where
there is a clear mis-match between expected and perceived sensory quality. It was also notable that positive expectations about
the novel food generated by the label frozen savoury mousse
did not lead to assimilation of the expected avour since no differences emerged between the congruent and neutral food label conditions in Experiment 3. A possible explanation for this might be
that the expectations generated by the congruent label were not
sufciently strong to facilitate assimilation when the actual food
was tasted, perhaps driven by the unique novelty of the food
tested. This conclusion is supported in part by the nding that condence ratings in the SAVOURY condition were less than in ICECREAM, but notably both were greater than in the CONTROL condition. However, the large difference in condence in ratings between SAVOURY and CONTROL conditions might have been
expected to promote assimilation in the SAVOURY condition. Another possible explanation for the lack of assimilation in the
SAVOURY condition was that the description of the study as evaluation of a novel food generated an expectation of novelty, which
alerted reduced the surprise when salmon ice-cream was tasted in
the CONTROL condition without giving any condence of what
sensory quality they would experience. This possibility could be
assessed in future studies.
The present data also conrm and extend previous ndings on
the role of expectation on sensory evaluation, particularly in relation to evidence for a contrast effect when expectations about sensory quality were disconrmed, a phenomena which has been
rarely reported for the effects of expectations generated by information prior to tasting for food stimuli, where assimilation is again
the normal response to disconrmed expectations. Thus where a
sweet fruity avour was expected but a salty sh avour experienced (the ICE-CREAM condition), the unexpected qualities tended
to be rated as stronger sensory experiences than in conditions
where either the expectation was for a similar product (the
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