Effects of noise and distraction on alcohol perception

By L. Stafford, M. Fernandes, Ed Agobiani. 2012

90 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent research demonstrated that noise unconnected to the target stimulus can alter taste perception of food, but it is not clear whether similar effects might be seen with respect to alcohol. This is particularly important, as it might help explain previous reports of higher/faster alcohol consumption in loud music environments. In the between subjects experiment here, participants (n = 80) completed standardised taste and olfactory tests, followed by a taste test of alcoholic beverages varying in strength (0, 1.9, 3.9, 5.6, and 7.5 pct abv) in a randomly allocated distractive or control condition. Distractive conditions were either music, shadow (listening and repeating a news story) or shadow and music (S-Music). We found that exposure to music led to higher sweetness ratings compared to all remaining groups. Interestingly, discrimination of alcohol strength was impaired for individuals in the S-Music compared to remaining groups which was accompanied by increased negative mood. This is the first experimental work to demonstrate how music and other forms of distraction alter taste perception of alcohol and suggest a mechanism by which distraction leads to increases in alcohol consumption.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Nutrition and Dietetics, Sensory Systems

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/654cc83a4960dd2386d3fc241332847dc6860876

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Nutrition and Dietetics

In Sensory Systems

Citations in the corpus

Noise and its impact on the perception of food and drink (2014, background): “[12] Headphones 80 Noise Alcoholic drinks Visual analogue scales Alcoholic beverages rated significantly sweeter”
Assessing the influence of the multisensory environment on the whisky drinking experience (2013, background): “[20] had 80 participants take a sip from each of five alcoholic drinks (varying in alcohol strength).”
The influence of soundscapes on the perception and evaluation of beers (2016, background): “As a matter of fact, Stafford et al. (2012) previously reported that music led to higher sweetness – and bitterness – ratings in vodka accompanied with different types of fruit juice.”