Judging food by its container
The art of food is complex.
Some people may not think much of it, as what goes down is the same no matter what, but there are those who believe that certain preparations are a crucial part of the dining experience. For instance, I have a friend who won't drink wine if it's not in a wine glass. She says it simply doesn't feel right when it's in, for example, a plastic cup or a beer glass. Also, the wine apparently doesn't feel as fancy. Another friend of mine, on the other hand, doesn't like eating packed lunch from a tupperware, favoring his metal lunch kit instead. Metal lunch kit; you know, the one where each container is stacked against the others and held together in place by the handle... Okay, you know what? Let's just refer to it as his metal baunan (that's how he referred to it, anyway). So the thing is, he claims that his lunch tastes better when he eats it from his metal baunan, but it's not because the container somehow gives the food a better taste, like magic. His exact words were "mas ginaganahan akong kumain", or that he's a lot more motivated to eat it. And then there's my own eating-related quirk. Personally, I don't like it when I'm eating dine-in at a food place and the cutlery I've been given is made of plastic. Not only are they small (and, thus, it feels like I'm eating baby portions), it also gives me the impression that what I'm eating is cheap or not that good compared to the same food offered in other restaurants. Additionally, my eating experience becomes all the more unpleasant when the meal is expensive by my standards.
Okay, so what does this mean? Birds of the same picky habits and preferences flock together? Actually, what I've just talked about is an example of sensation transference. Sensation transference occurs when physical attributes of a container, be it plate, cutlery, cups, bottles, etc. are attributed or transferred to the food or drink consumed1. It is when people are consciously aware of the kind of container they are consuming food or drink from, which then produces a certain effect involving their perception of the food or drink, or their experience of eating or drinking.
Remember those articles that showcased creative packaging of certain food and drinks? Did you perhaps developed inclinations to try that product out or to simply see it for yourself just because of the ingenuity, innovativeness, or some other quality of the packaging that moved you or piqued your interest? (You didn't? What a liar.) Because of such effects, a lot of research, especially consumer and food-related research, is actually looking into it. The resulting investigations, specifically regarding the effect of the physical attributes of containers towards perception and consumption experience, had produced varying results, mostly dependent on the kind of foodstuff the attributes were tested against.
For instance, it was found that orange plastic cups with white interiors enhanced people's perception of the chocolate flavor of hot chocolate2. The same study also found that dark-cream colored cups had the same effect, in addition to enhancing perceived sweetness and aroma of the drink. Elsewhere, Van Doorn, Wuillemin, & Spence3 found that compared to transparent glass mugs, white ceramic mugs enhanced the perceived taste intensity and bitterness of coffee. Both studies suggest that the white background (interior) of the cups may have influenced the perceived brownness of the hot chocolate and coffee, and that influenced people's perception and evaluation of the drinks. Indeed, even when it comes to other food receptacles such as cutlery and plates, it was found that color, when it is in contrast with the color of a particular food or drink, appears to enhance the perceived taste of food.1,4
What about water? Water is a tasteless drink, so what happens when sensation transference occurs regarding this particular beverage?
In a series of experiments, Aradhna Krishna from the University of Michigan and Maureen Morrin from Rutgers University showed that many people do indeed judge a drink by its container, even flavorless drinks such as water. Specifically, they investigated how the firmness of the cup affected people's evaluations of the drink contained within.5
There were four experiments, all of which basically involved the same mineral water being contained within a flimsy cup and a cup of firmer material. These cups looked the same, differing only in the firmness of the material. The participants then evaluated the quality of the water: (1) when they were touching and holding the cups while blindfolded, (2) when they were not blindfolded but were asked not to touch the cups, (3) when they were able to see and touch them, and (4) when they were simply given written descriptions of the cups.
Krishna and Morrin’s study found out that when water was served in flimsy, plastic cups, people actually perceived the water as being of higher quality based on the written description and from looking at the cups, that is, when they were not able to touch or hold either cup, compared to when they were allowed to hold them. However, when people actually held the cups, they rated the quality of the water in the flimsy cups as having a lower quality than those in the firm cups (note that both cups contain the same kind of water). The most interesting finding, however, was that strong autotelics, that is, people who like to touch things before they buy them, were the least influenced from having physical contact with the cups. In the study's taste test of the same mineral water from both a flimsy and a firm cup, it was actually the low autotelics (those who weren't particularly inclined to touch products) who gave the most negative evaluations of the taste of the water in the flimsy cup.
What does this mean? The researchers believed that strong autotelics, compared to low autotelics, enjoy touching objects and thus are inclined to touch them more, and as a result of which they are more consciously aware of the potential effect the qualities of the container of a product regarding evaluation of the actual product itself. Because of this, high autotelics are more capable of adjusting their judgment regarding such matters.
Looking at the results more broadly, however, we can see that the feel of the cup really does affect our perception of the drink it holds. This is most relevant to those in the food industry, especially the establishments who sell drinks in disposable containers, such as fastfood restaurants and coffee shops. When the drink is truly great yet the feel of the material isn’t as good, there would be a negative impact on customers’ perception of the beverage’s taste and quality. And that wouldn’t be too good for business, now, would it?
Article by CK Hermosa
1Spence, C., Harrar, V., & Piqueras-Fiszman, B. (2012). Assessing the impact of the tableware and other contextual variables on multisensory flavour perception. Flavour, 1, 7-19. Retrieved from http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/pdf/2044-7248-1-7.pdf
2 Piqueras-Fiszman, B. & Spence, C. (2012). The weight of the container influences expected satiety, perceived density, and subsequent expected fullness. Appetite, 58, 559–562.
3Van Doorn, G. H., Wuillemin, D., & Spence, C. (2014). Does the color of the mug influence the taste of the coffee? Flavour, 3(10). Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2044-7248-3-10
4Harrar, V. & Spence, C. (2013). The taste of cutlery: how the taste of food is affected by the weight, size, shape, and colour of the cutlery used to eat it. Flavour, 2(21). Retrieved from http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/pdf/2044-7248-2-21.pdf
5Krishna A. & Morrin, M. (2008). Does touch affect taste? The perceptual transfer of product container haptic cues. Journal of Consumer Research, 34, 807–818.
Cup of water [Online image]. Retrieved November 2, 2015 from cleanwateraction.org