Surprising ourselves with the pleasant or unpleasant taste of a food can change a person’s mood , according to the latest study carried out by a team of researchers from the Netherlands, Austria and Finland. The work has been published in the journal Food Research International.
In order to measure emotional reactions to food consumption, the experts conducted an experiment with three groups of at least 24 participants and four techniques or methods to measure their emotional responses. Each of them were given a couple of flavored yogurts. The yogurts were from the same brand but had different flavors or fat content.
The four methods to measure your emotional response to yogurt were: face reading during consumption, an emotional projection test (EPT or emotional polarity therapy), a reaction time test based on mood congruence, and follow-up of the eyes to measure the impact of the container on their reactions. The tests were carried out before and after ingesting the yogurts.
The results revealed that being pleasantly surprised or, conversely, disappointed, by a taste, seemed to influence the moods of the volunteers. Regarding the flavors, they found no difference in the emotional responses of most of the yogurt flavors, however, the vanilla yogurt stood out for having generally provoked a positive emotional response of great intensity (they felt happier) , supporting the theory that a subtle vanilla scent in places such as hospital waiting rooms or dental clinics can strain and foster relationships between patients and staff.
” This type of information can be very valuable to product manufacturers , giving them insight into the way we unconsciously respond to a product,” explains Jozina Mojet, leader of the study.
