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Environmental Immersion’s Influence on Hedonics, Perceived Appropriateness, and Willingness to Pay in Alcoholic Beverages

The eating experience is multimodal. As we consume a dish, we perceive much more than that which initially activates the senses, including influences from our surroundings. Foods sampled in experimental settings are largely evaluated within a sensory booth, an environment designed to be devoid of su...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Picket, Benjamin, Dando, Robin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406405/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30691117
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods8020042
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author Picket, Benjamin
Dando, Robin
author_facet Picket, Benjamin
Dando, Robin
author_sort Picket, Benjamin
collection PubMed
description The eating experience is multimodal. As we consume a dish, we perceive much more than that which initially activates the senses, including influences from our surroundings. Foods sampled in experimental settings are largely evaluated within a sensory booth, an environment designed to be devoid of such external or non-standardized stimuli, so that participants can focus solely on the sample itself. In natural experiences, we rarely consume food in such isolation—context is actually key to many dining experiences and can have an integral role in how we perceive the foods we eat. Using virtual reality to artificially provide this context, we tested how the setting in which a beverage was consumed influenced perception of two different samples. Virtual environments were formed by processing custom-recorded 360 degree videos and overlaying audio, text, and sensory scales to simulate a typical sensory evaluation. Participants were asked to taste two alcoholic beverages, a beer and a sparkling wine, in two virtual contexts, a bar and a winery. The results indicated that participants’ willingness to pay for, and overall enjoyment of the sparkling wine increased when placed in the winery context, with no change between the two virtual contexts for the beer sample. This occurred without alteration of the samples’ sensory properties or the ability of panelists to identify the beverage they were drinking; however, perceived appropriateness of the samples for the setting was strongly influenced by the context in which they were sampled, suggesting that perceived appropriateness for a surrounding may play a role in the degree to which we enjoy a food. Results provide further proof that artificially-applied context, such as that provided by virtual reality, can further the sensory testing of foods.
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spelling pubmed-64064052019-03-19 Environmental Immersion’s Influence on Hedonics, Perceived Appropriateness, and Willingness to Pay in Alcoholic Beverages Picket, Benjamin Dando, Robin Foods Article The eating experience is multimodal. As we consume a dish, we perceive much more than that which initially activates the senses, including influences from our surroundings. Foods sampled in experimental settings are largely evaluated within a sensory booth, an environment designed to be devoid of such external or non-standardized stimuli, so that participants can focus solely on the sample itself. In natural experiences, we rarely consume food in such isolation—context is actually key to many dining experiences and can have an integral role in how we perceive the foods we eat. Using virtual reality to artificially provide this context, we tested how the setting in which a beverage was consumed influenced perception of two different samples. Virtual environments were formed by processing custom-recorded 360 degree videos and overlaying audio, text, and sensory scales to simulate a typical sensory evaluation. Participants were asked to taste two alcoholic beverages, a beer and a sparkling wine, in two virtual contexts, a bar and a winery. The results indicated that participants’ willingness to pay for, and overall enjoyment of the sparkling wine increased when placed in the winery context, with no change between the two virtual contexts for the beer sample. This occurred without alteration of the samples’ sensory properties or the ability of panelists to identify the beverage they were drinking; however, perceived appropriateness of the samples for the setting was strongly influenced by the context in which they were sampled, suggesting that perceived appropriateness for a surrounding may play a role in the degree to which we enjoy a food. Results provide further proof that artificially-applied context, such as that provided by virtual reality, can further the sensory testing of foods. MDPI 2019-01-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6406405/ /pubmed/30691117 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods8020042 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Picket, Benjamin
Dando, Robin
Environmental Immersion’s Influence on Hedonics, Perceived Appropriateness, and Willingness to Pay in Alcoholic Beverages
title Environmental Immersion’s Influence on Hedonics, Perceived Appropriateness, and Willingness to Pay in Alcoholic Beverages
title_full Environmental Immersion’s Influence on Hedonics, Perceived Appropriateness, and Willingness to Pay in Alcoholic Beverages
title_fullStr Environmental Immersion’s Influence on Hedonics, Perceived Appropriateness, and Willingness to Pay in Alcoholic Beverages
title_full_unstemmed Environmental Immersion’s Influence on Hedonics, Perceived Appropriateness, and Willingness to Pay in Alcoholic Beverages
title_short Environmental Immersion’s Influence on Hedonics, Perceived Appropriateness, and Willingness to Pay in Alcoholic Beverages
title_sort environmental immersion’s influence on hedonics, perceived appropriateness, and willingness to pay in alcoholic beverages
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406405/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30691117
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods8020042
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