The effect of emotional music on Just-About-Right and speeded-responses to chocolate

Research has demonstrated effects of emotional music on sensory perception of food, with many findings supporting a more favourable evaluation of foods when eaten while listening to positive music over negative emotional music. As the food industry becomes more focused on testing in realistic environments, there is a greater need to investigate the effects of auditory input on consumer perception when captured with measurement tools used in consumer sensory research. Consumers attending an event in New Zealand, took part in a chocolate tasting where they consumed milk or dark chocolate in positive and negative emotional music conditions. Consumer responses included emotional and sensory associations to the samples using a speeded response task, liking and Just-About-Right evaluations. Findings showed liking of dark chocolate was significantly higher in the positive as compared with the negative emotional music condition, whereas sensory changes were restricted to milk chocolate for the sweetness attribute where it was rated as higher in the positive as compared with the negative emotional music condition. Speeded emotional and sensory associations were highly susceptible to the effects of emotional music. Furthermore, exploratory penalty analysis revealed that emotional music can impact consumer feedback on attribute importance. This study builds on current understandings of the effects emotional music can have on automatic consumer responses, specifically speeded self-reported responses and gives further clarity on how the relationship between attributes and their link with liking may change with emotional music. The findings of this study offer a new insight into how emotional music can influence consumer and sensory science study outcomes when speeded self-report and JAR are used. • Emotional music affected JAR only for sweetness in milk chocolate. • Music affected the importance of sensory attributes on liking. • Speeded emotional responses changed with emotional music. • Sensory responses changed with emotional music in comparative analysis.