Deceiving Senses part III.

Have you ever told yourself that your senses are the thing to count on and that you trust what you can see, smell, hear, feel or taste? Well, then you will be surprised by how far you are from the truth.

Flavour perception and personal experience of any cocktail, food, or anything you buy is a multi-sensory process. It means that your opinions, decisions & memories are based on more than just sight and the visual memory of the moment. This process can be influenced by the appearance and even the texture of an object or just by listening to it's description while consuming it. Simply said touch, hearing, sight and other senses are also involved and can change the whole experience. You can learn a few tricks that can help you create more intensive experience for your guests.

What I'm going to write about in the third part of the Deceiving Senses series - is actually an extended text and explanation of a chapter Neurogastronomy & Gastrophysics I wrote about in my book. The first episode about Weight is here, the second one belongs to the Texture & this is the third episode - Colors.

When you look at something, one of the first things you’ll notice is the color. Maybe, even the color changed your perception of the object or caused, that you remembered certain situation to the detail. This can happen when you are one of the visual learners, who understand and remember things by seeing. As a visual learner, you prefer to SEE what you are learning and you retain information best when visual objects like graphs, charts or pictures are used. Visual learners read body language well and have a keen eye for esthetics.

How colors influence you is scientifically proven by many studies. Most of them were provided by scientists & marketing agencies just to learn and find out how can colors and their saturation, depth, hue or contrast change the way people perceiving food or drinks and even change their buying behavior.

Just look at the pictures and decide which side is more attractive for your eyes & looks more delicious with higher quality.

Louis Cheskin was a scientific researcher, clinical psychologist, and important marketing innovator. He observed that people's perceptions of products are directly related to aesthetic design, and named this relationship sensation transference - it means that most people could not resist transferring their feelings towards the packaging of the product itself.

Now, when you know this, look again at the pictures and I will tell you a secret. Both pictures have the same cocktail on it, but the one on the right catches your eyes more because of the depth & saturation of the color. It means that just by simply adjusting the color, you can experience different flavors and emotions while consuming the cocktail or food.

There was a study published in the Journal of Food Science in 1993, where people confused the flavours of beverages when they were colored ‘incorrectly’. A cherry flavored beverage altered to be orange in color was reported to have tasted like an orange flavoured beverage and a cherry flavoured beverage altered to be green in color was reported to have tasted like lime. The role played by color in our taste perceptions has been researched by many food manufacturers in an attempt to better behavior understanding.

Colors also change the ways how we remember certain situations, objects & our post-experience. It’s generally known, that the more saturated colors, the more intensive experience, but it’s also important what tint we use. Flashy shades are the best to remember, but can affect your experience negatively, because in our brain we connect these shades with danger. Don't be afraid to use flashy shades, but pay attention to the amount of color on the whole object.

Remember this. Consumption is a multi-sensory process and the first thing that comes to the brain is the visual representation. Pay attention to the colors and the aspect of how to use them, try different combinations and learn how ingredients interact together. Visually.

This is how beautiful is the world of the human mind and how easily can be our senses tricked. Stay tuned for another part of Deceiving Senses.

All of this can be found in my book in the SHOP - Physical or Digital version & I also created a seminar for those who are interested in the Neurogastronomy & Gastrophysics called Know What Happiness Smells Like?