Peng-Li Danni, Chan Raymond C K, Byrne Derek V, Wang Qian Janice
Food Quality Perception and Society, iSENSE Lab, Department of Food Science, Aarhus University, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark.
Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Foods. 2020 Aug 12;9(8):1109. doi: 10.3390/foods9081109.
Musical fit refers to the congruence between music and attributes of a food or product in context, which can prime consumer behavior through semantic networks in memory. The vast majority of research on this topic dealing with musical fit in a cultural context has thus far been limited to monocultural groups in field studies, where uncontrolled confounds can potentially influence the study outcome. To overcome these limitations, and in order to explore the effects of ethnically congruent music on visual attention and food choice across cultures, the present study recruited 199 participants from China ( = 98) and Denmark ( = 101) for an in-laboratory food choice paradigm with eye-tracking data collection. For each culture group, the study used a between-subject design with half of the participants listening to only instrumental "Eastern" music and the other half only listening to instrumental "Western" music, while both groups engaged in a food choice task involving "Eastern" and "Western" food. Chi-square tests revealed a clear ethnic congruency effect between music and food choice across culture, whereby Eastern (vs. Western) food was chosen more during the Eastern music condition, and Western (vs. Eastern) food was chosen more in the Western music condition. Furthermore, results from a generalized linear mixed model suggested that Chinese participants fixated more on Western (vs. Eastern) food when Western music was played, whereas Danish participants fixated more on Eastern (vs. Western) food when Eastern music was played. Interestingly, no such priming effects were found when participants listened to music from their own culture, suggesting that music-evoked visual attention may be culturally dependent. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that ambient music can have a significant impact on consumers' explicit and implicit behaviors, while at the same time highlighting the importance of culture-specific sensory marketing applications in the global food industry.
音乐契合度是指音乐与特定情境下食物或产品属性之间的一致性，它可以通过记忆中的语义网络引发消费者行为。到目前为止，关于这一主题在文化背景下音乐契合度的绝大多数研究都局限于实地研究中的单一文化群体，在这种研究中，不受控制的混杂因素可能会影响研究结果。为了克服这些局限性，并探索种族契合的音乐对跨文化视觉注意力和食物选择的影响，本研究招募了199名来自中国（n = 98）和丹麦（n = 101）的参与者，采用实验室食物选择范式并收集眼动数据。对于每个文化群体，该研究采用了组间设计，一半参与者只听器乐“东方”音乐，另一半只听器乐“西方”音乐，而两组都参与了涉及“东方”和“西方”食物的食物选择任务。卡方检验揭示了跨文化中音乐与食物选择之间明显的种族契合效应，即在播放东方音乐时，选择东方（相对于西方）食物的情况更多，而在播放西方音乐时，选择西方（相对于东方）食物的情况更多。此外，广义线性混合模型的结果表明，播放西方音乐时，中国参与者对西方（相对于东方）食物的注视更多，而播放东方音乐时，丹麦参与者对东方（相对于西方）食物的注视更多。有趣的是，当参与者听来自自己文化的音乐时，没有发现这种启动效应，这表明音乐引发的视觉注意力可能具有文化依赖性。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，背景音乐可以对消费者的显性和隐性行为产生重大影响，同时凸显了全球食品行业中特定文化感官营销应用的重要性。
