Hues to Cues: The Influence of Color Cues on Taste Perception

Abstract

This paper examines how color cues influence taste perception in order to know what is the sensory and psychological reason for preference for certain foods. The experiment used 22 female participants aged 18-25 years old from two academic programs; 16 students from the business-related academic program and 6 students from the English academic program coming from the UM Digos City, Davao del Sur, Philippines. This research used the within-subjects design; thus, each participant was exposed to both the experimental and control conditions. The different colors of hotcakes were evaluated against sensory attributes and hedonic enjoyment using hedonic rating scales. Results from the paired sample t-test showed no statistically significant differences in preferences and hedonic enjoyment between the colored food samples. For example, orange (M = 6.61, SD = 1.06) was only marginally preferred over violet (M = 6.59, SD = 1.17), but this was not statistically significant, t(21) = -0.09, p = 0.926, d = -0.0201. Similar non-significant results were found in comparisons between orange-green and orange-red samples. These results suggest that while orange was slightly higher in preference, the differences across all colors were negligible. The same pattern was observed for orange-green and orange-red comparisons. This result implied that the null hypothesis was accepted because even though orange was only slightly preferred over the other colors, the differences were not of statistical significance. It proves that color plays a very negligible role in preference and pleasure towards food consumption, although exogenous influences of culture, habits, and eating behavior can interfere. It reflects that in future research studies, there must be an enhancement in sample size as well as more profound focus on context and psychology. These implications apply to the field of marketing, design of the product, and practice in sensory evaluation.