An experimental study conducted in Austria found that listening to disliked music decreased general desire to eat, but increased the specific desire to eat high-sugar food. On the other hand, listening to liked music and not listening to music was associated with a higher preference for low-sugar foods. The paper was published in Appetite.
Music is present everywhere in society and plays a significant role in everyone’s lives. Even when people do not actively listen to music, they are exposed to it in places like restaurants, supermarkets, or even in the streets. Music can be created using voice, instruments, digital technology, or even everyday objects that produce sound.
People use music to express feelings that are difficult to put into words, but feelings can also be affected by music. Music can change mood, reduce stress, increase energy, or help people feel comforted and understood. Music also helps people bond with one another through shared singing, dancing, rituals, celebrations, and cultural traditions. In many societies, it carries history, identity, values, and memories from one generation to the next. It gives pleasure to people and allows them to experience a sense of beauty. For some people, it serves as a way to cope with pain, loneliness, or emotional struggle.
Study authors Jonas Potthoff and Anne Schienle investigated whether liked or disliked music affects visual attention, desire to eat, and food choice in a buffet-like context. The study authors hypothesized that the general desire to eat and the specific desire to eat high-sugar food would be reduced after listening to liked music and increased after listening to disliked music. They also expected that visual attention to food would be increased when participants listened to music they disliked and decreased when they listened to liked music.
The study included 106 participants. 83 of them were women. Participants’ average age was 25 years. 33 participants were vegetarian or vegan, and all participants were instructed to fast for at least three hours prior to the laboratory session.
Study participants were randomly divided into three groups. One group listened to music they liked during the experiment, another listened to disliked music, and the third group finished the experiment with no music. In the experimental setting, 9 items were presented on a table in a 3×3 array. There were three high-sugar foods (vegan gummy sweets of different colors), three low-sugar foods (fruits: green grapes, an orange, and a red apple), and three non-food items (green glass marbles, an orange massage ball, and a red tennis ball).
Participants were instructed to bring one song that they particularly like and one song that they particularly dislike. Depending on the condition, they were instructed to either listen to the song they liked, the song they disliked, or were not given instructions to listen to music.
Before and after listening to music, study participants completed assessments of their affective state (the self-assessment mannikin), and of their general desire to eat. Next, they proceeded to view the items on the table (the buffet), while study authors used an eye tracker to record their eye movements. Finally, participants rated their desire to eat the food items on the table and were allowed to take and consume as many buffet items as they desired.
Results showed that, after listening to disliked music, participants tended to have a lower general desire to eat, but a higher desire to eat high-sugar foods (the vegan gummy sweets). In fact, nearly 62% of participants in the disliked music group chose to eat a high-sugar food, compared to only 24% in the liked music group and 38% in the no-music group. Liked music and no music were associated with a preference for low-sugar foods (fruits, in this case).
The researchers attribute this phenomenon to a concept called “compensatory consumption” or emotional eating. Because the disliked music worsened the participants’ moods, their brains subconsciously sought out highly rewarding, sugar-dense comfort foods as a coping mechanism to improve how they felt, even though their overall hunger was diminished.
Music did not affect participants’ visual attention. However, participants looked longer at food than at non-food items regardless of the music condition, proving that the decision to eat sugary foods was driven by mood rather than how long they stared at the candy.
“These findings suggest that music can bias food-related decision-making independently of attentional processes: liked music may encourage healthier choices, whereas disliked music increases susceptibility to high-sugar comfort foods despite reduced general appetite. The results highlight the potential of music as a subtle, non-caloric intervention for promoting low-sugar eating behaviour,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of effects of music on food choices. However, it remains unknown how much the preferences participants expressed for specific food items can really be generalized to wider food categories. Increased preference for fruits after listening to liked music might simply be a preference for fruits and not for low-sugar foods in general. Similarly, an increased preference for gummy sweets after listening to disliked music might simply apply to gummy sweets rather than high-sugar foods in general.
The paper, “Eye candy & eye tunes: Effects of liked vs. disliked music on desire to eat and food choice in an eye-tracking buffet paradigm,”” was authored by Jonas Potthoff and Anne Schienle.