为什么你戒不掉巧克力?科学家说:不光是因为好吃
How much of your chocolate buying is based on taste, and how much is based on the shininess of its wrapping? A new study backs up what we've long suspected – the way chocolate is packaged creates a stronger emotional pull than what it actually tastes like. And while the chocolate we buy in the future is mostly dependent on how it tastes, the research suggests, how we perceive that taste on our tongue is influenced to some extent on the way the treat was wrapped up. The team behind the study, from the University of Melbourne in Australia, says their work could be helpful for companies looking for ideas for how to market their products – as well as making us more aware of how we're choosing what to put in our shopping baskets. "There's a difference in how consumers perceive intrinsic product cues – like flavor, aroma, and texture – which are associated with sensory and perceptual systems, and how they perceive external cues – like packaging materials, information, brand name, and price – which are associated with cognitive and psychological mechanisms," says one of the team, Frank R. Dunshea. "The information provided via packaging can influence customers' expectations and affect their emotional response when their sensory experience confirms or doesn't confirm their initial impression." For this experiment, 75 chocolate tasting volunteers were asked questions based on three conditions: a taste test with no packaging, a look at the packaging with no tasting, and a taste test with the packaging visible. For the last part, samples of the same chocolate were wrapped in six different packaging concepts – bold, fun, everyday, special, healthy and premium. Participants were asked to rate the taste of the product, the emotions it prompted, and how likely they would be to buy the chocolate in the future. People rated a chocolate's taste lower if the wrapper didn't match what was inside. What's more, when the wrappers mentioned positive words, there was a positive link between liking both the packaging and the taste of the chocolate. |