Multisensory interactions: The influence of context on beverage and soundtrack pairing

In everyday life, the environment that surrounds us plays a key role in perception and emotions. Environments can influence positively or negatively food perception and liking. However, very few studies have investigated the interaction between our five senses in specific contexts. The aim of the present study was to explore multisensory interactions in context using auditory and gustatory stimuli. A hundred and eleven participants were recruited and tested in one out of three different contexts: 1) laboratory condition, 2) in a bar context, and 3) in an auditorium (playing classical music). For the bar and auditorium context, the sessions took place in an immersive room. For each context, participants were asked to taste one beer while listening to a musical excerpt, and to rate liking, harmony, and familiarity of the beer-excerpt association. In addition, liking and familiarity of the beers and the excerpts were rated separately. Results showed that 1) the harmony evaluation of beer-excerpt pairs could be separately explained by the sensory characteristics of beers and the music; 2) Participants in the musical context evaluated the pairs differently: pairs were more harmonious, preferred and judged more familiar in the musical context than in the laboratory and the bar contexts. The present study helps understanding the sensory dominance of one sense over the other senses and gives insights for marketing research as it shows that context not only influences consumer behavior but also products evaluation.