Effects of Multisensory Environmental Cues on Food Craving, Healthy Food Preference, and Stress-Related Recovery

Emotional eating (EE) is associated with poor dietary quality and weight gain among university students. Therefore, exploring innovative, non-invasive interventions to support healthier food-related responses is essential. While multisensory environments show promise in influencing food-related responses, their effectiveness in managing stress-induced EE remains understudied. Grounded in the Environment–Organism–Health (EOH) model, this study used an immersive virtual reality (VR) platform and recruited 49 Chinese university students. After emotional induction tasks, participants were randomly assigned to VR campus environments with varying wall colors and environmental sounds. The study combined physiological indicators and subjective questionnaires to evaluate the effects of color–sound combinations on emotional responses, physiological recovery, food preferences, and food cravings. Food preference was assessed via an image-selection task, and food healthiness was rated by an expert panel (n = 7). A mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant interaction between wall color and sound. Natural sounds were associated with reduced negative emotions and higher healthy food preference scores under several color conditions, while both color and sound influenced food craving. Independent t-tests revealed significant differences according to gender and emotional eating tendency on multiple outcomes. This study suggests that multisensory environments may offer a novel approach to influencing stress-related emotional responses, food preferences, and food cravings.