The Affect of Appearance on the Perceived Taste of Food Researchers: Noah Sinclair 9th Grade, 14 years old 434 Ken Maril Rd. Ames, Iowa, 50010 [email protected] Maxwell Westlake 9th Grade, 14 years old 4015 Ross Rd. Ames, Iowa, 50014 [email protected] Research Sponsor: DeAnna Tibben 9th Grade Earth and Space Science Teacher [email protected] Principal Spencer Evans Ames High School 1921 Ames High Drive Ames, Iowa 50010 We below, certify that this grant proposal is a true and accurate representation of the research intentions of the student. Researcher Signature: _________________________________________________________ Researcher Signature: _________________________________________________________ Research Sponsor Signature: ____________________________________________________ School Principal Signature: ______________________________________________________ STARR Grant Proposal
Does The Appearance of Food Affect the Perceived Taste? We believe that the appearance of food has a direct correlation on the perceived taste. We think that if a diner have a nicer looking appearance of a certain type of food and a worse looking appearance of the exact same food they will be biased towards the food that appears nicer. They will also perceive it to taste better even if the meal includes the same ingredients as its lower counterpart. From the articles we read they showed that people perceive a better presented food as more expensive and tasteful. It also showed that people’s perception of taste can be affected by lighting and atmosphere of where they are eating. Another study showed that people who perceive a foods presentation as bland also perceive it to taste just as bland. There does seem to be a tie between the sense of sight and taste. After discussing an extensive range of topics we decided to do a project that involved psychology. While we found plenty of similar research projects, we did not find any projects that had covered this exact topic. It is a question that we are both personally interested, so combined with the other factors it was a natural choice. It ties in with psychology in the way of it addresses one of the most essential parts of the human life, eating. Why are some appearances more appetizing than others? Is it a part of human nature or conformity? What makes a perfect dish? Also we would like to crack the code of restaurants/entrepreneurism, how to make the best food with minimal effort and what places actually focus in on the content rather than appearance? Are restaurants severely overpricing food just because appearance is all that matters? We will attend to all of these questions in the future. Review of Literature Briggs, Amy. "What You See Is What You Taste, Says Scientist." National Geographic Blogs . N.p., 12 Apr. 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2015. < http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/12/what­you­see­is­what­you­taste­says­scientist/ >. This website told us about how humans can see flavors without actually tasting them. There’s four parts of flavor. Sight, odor, texture, and finally taste. It also spoke on a old test, where a white wine is dyed red and people are asked what they believe the flavor is (they say red wine comments). However it stated at the end that sometimes the eyes don’t come into play (with gross looking chile for example). Fleming, Amy. "Why Does Artistically Presented Food Taste Better?" TheGuardian . N.p., 20 June 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. < http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/jun/20/why­does­artistically­presented­food­t
aste­better >. This website spoke on the experiment of Charles Michael who served three salads to people and asked them which one they liked the most. One was neat and organized, one was just a tossed salad, and one was changed to look like a abstract painting. People said that they would pay more for the third one and that they thought it tasted better. Purves, Brendan. "Food Plating: The Art of Food Presentation." The Art Institutes Blog . The Art Insititute, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2015. < https://www.artinstitutes.edu/blog/food­plating­the­art­of­food­presentation >. Artists stressed the point of food presentation, and how bland looking food will have a bland taste. Alyson Crispin stated: “Adding just a little more color to anything will make the plate more appealing,”. This could give us more things to experiment, such as lots of color. Koerth, Maggie. "The Surprising Impact of Taste and Smell." LiveScience . TechMedia Network, 05 Aug. 2008. Web. 26 Sept. 2015. < http://www.livescience.com/2737­surprising­impact­taste­smell.html >. Flavor is a combo of taste and smell. Only tasting things would limit it to s alty, sour, sweet, bitter and umami. It also talked about genetics and how hormones can be helpful in sense some of the basic tastes. There are also some chemical markers that allow people to taste certain flavors better than others. Called PROP, it allows people to better taste bitter flavors. Magoulas, Costa, "How color affects food choices" (2009). UNLV Theses/Dissertations/Professional Papers/Capstones. Paper 552. < http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1553&context=thesesdissertations > This 86 page paper has lots of information concerning the effects of color on food. Color is wired into the human mind to help them find what is safe to eat, and what is not. Now speaking on how color affects the taste of food it was mentioned that the surrounding environment and lighting can affect how one perceives the taste. This will need to taken into consideration when conducting our experiments and it may give us another thing to test. Procedure 1. Choose our thirty subjects for our testing. Make sure to include all different types of classes (male, female, young, older, etc). We will schedule experimentation times in advance. 2. Purchase proper items to prepare the sandwiches (all Stovetop Ham and Cheese). 3. Before their arrival, prepare the three sandwiches in the various appearances but all containing the same ingredients. a. One sloppily prepared served on paper plate with water in paper cup. b. One served on plastic plate prepared averagely with water in plastic glass. c. One prepared very nicely with garnish served on ceramic plate with water served in fancy glass. 4. Ask them to sit down at the same spot as all of the other subjects. Try to make the conditions as similar as possible. 5. Place in front of them three different arrangements of the same meal. Ask them to try all three. 6. Discuss what each meal tastes like to them. What flavors are they getting from each one. Record their experience. 7. Ask the subject to rate their meal, on a scale of one to ten. Record data. 8. Thanks subject for attending our experiment. 9. Repeat experiment 30 times to receive data. If this experiment goes well we will consider changing other aspects of the presentation, including, but not limited to, lighting, temperature of room, hunger of the diner, and aroma of food. Budget Food Supplies Item Cost/ Unit Deli Sliced Colby Jack Cheese (Sargento) 2.74$ for 11 slices Black Forest Ham (Hillshire Farms) 2.98$ per 9 oz. package Pullman Bread Loaves Sweet Cream Unsalted Sweet Butter (Land O’ Lakes) Quantity Total Provider Vendor 5 13.70$ Grant Walmart 12 35.76$ Grant Walmart 1.98$ per 28 slices 3 5.94$ Grant Walmart 5.24$ per 4 sticks of butter 1 5.24$ Grant Walmart Other Supplies Plating Owned By Noah 3 0$ None Needed Noah Glasses and Cups (Plastic) Owned By Noah 3 Plastic 3 Glass 0$ None Needed Noah Great Value Clear Disposable Cups (9 oz.) 2.58$ for 8 cups 1 2.58$ Grant Walmart Garnish (Basil) 1.00$ per half oz. 5 oz. 5.00$ Grant Fareway or Walmart Toothpicks 3.77 per box (750 per box) 1 3.77$ Grant Walmart Paper Plates 2.77 per pack 1 2.77$ Grant Walmart Total Value 74.76$ Total Amount (with tax) 75.40$ Our budget is mostly taken up by the food supplies we will need to purchase in order to create our 90 sandwiches. Ham takes up a very large portion, but every sandwich will be cut in half so that the subject doesn’t get too full and to conserve money. Other portions simply state the extra items we will need, such a disposable plates and cups. W
e have also rounded up what we are asking for budget to 80.00$ in case of unforeseen expenses such as rise in price in one of the items and etc. We request that request that the Iowa Junior Academy of Science provide 80.00$ for our research project.