1. Can Music change the rating of wine tastings?
AAWE Meeting - Ithaca 2018
Can Music change the rating of wine tastings?
Britta Niklas

2. Can Music change the rating of wine tastings?
Introduction / Literature
Experiment and Data
Methodological approach
Results
Conclusion
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

3. “Enters the ear, stays in the head” suggests,
1. Introduction / Literature
“Enters the ear, stays in the head” suggests,
that auditive signals are able to alter our sensation.
Growing body of research: what we listen to can change what we taste.
Many sensory experiences (crispy, crackly, …)- largely depend on associated sounds. (Spence 2015a).
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

4. 1. Introduction / Literature
Crossmodal effects - result from multisensory integration:
Spence (2015): Our brain tries to integrate inputs from different senses that belong to same food or drink.
Wesson and Wilson (2010): direct neural connections between ear and nose.
Peeples (2010) called this merged sense "Smound" and found out:
loud sound might be able to suppress the olfactory function.
Question:
Can background sound impact on the taste and flavor of food and drinks?
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

5. 1. Introduction / Literature
Wine tastings:
hard to determine objective measures (heterogenous consumers). Lecocq, Visser (2006)
Price information is seen to be an important determinant for the rating of wines. Brochet (2001) and Plassmann et al. (2008)
No price information: other influences (like sensory ones) affect tasting experience.
Spence et al. (2013) with London Symphony Orchestra ran an experiment:
People rated wines % higher when matching music was played.
Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence (2015):
right match of music and food/drink makes the taste more authentic.
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

6. (Comparison of regions)
1. Introduction
Research Questions:
Do participants of wine tastings rank the wine of a region higher than wines of other regions while listening to matching music of the region?
(Comparison of regions)
2. Is the wine of a certain region rated higher, when matching music of the respective region is played during the tasting? (Judgement of each wine)
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

7. Regional Wine Judgement
1. Introduction
Matching Music
Wine tasting
Regional Wine Judgement
Hypothesis:
Matching Music has a positive impact on the regional wine judgement!
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

8. Pedestrians were randomly asked to take part. Self Selection problem!
2. Experiment and Data
Wine tasting at the „Blaupause“ – celebration of 50th birthday of Ruhr-University Bochum!
+/ visitors
Pedestrians were randomly asked to take part.
Self Selection problem!
White Wine tasting: 112 participants
Red Wine tasting: 92 participants
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

9. No information on prices or expert ratings
2. Experiment and Data
4 White Wines / 4 Red Wines of similar quality (according to expert ratings)
No information on prices or expert ratings
Country of origin of each Wine was repeatedly indicated and visible
2 questionnaires (1 for each research question):
For research question 1:
Comparison (Rank 1-4) of
4 white wines from South Africa, Germany, France and Spain
4 red wines from South Africa, Germany, France and Argentina
Matching Music of respective regions was played during tasting.
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

10. 3. Methodological approach
Correlation:
Highest rating for regional wine and the respective matching regional music.
Linear Regression:
Dependent variable: Highest rank for a regional Wine
Independent variable: Respective Music
Descriptive Statistics
Gender as additional independent variables. (Age - not shown here)
Comparison of results with and without matching music.
Not included here: Ordered Probit (so far only significant results for SA)
Hier mit Trend
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11. Only related to research question 1:
4. Results
Only related to research question 1:
White wines – all regions:
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12. White Wine South Africa:
4. Results
White Wine South Africa:
Women and men: +/- react equally positive
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13. White Wine Germany: 4. Results Men react stronger on music (positive)
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14. White Wine France: 4. Results
Some women react negatively on french music
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15. White Wine Spain: 4. Results Women react stronger on music (positive)
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

16. Only related to research question 1:
4. Results
Only related to research question 1:
Red wines – all regions:
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

17. Red Wine South Africa: 4. Results
Women and men: +/- and react both negatively
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18. Red Wine Germany: 4. Results Men react stronger on music
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

19. Red Wine France: 4. Results Men react stronger on music (negatively)
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20. Red Wine Argentina: 4. Results
Women react positively, men more negatively
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

21. For white wines, matching music seems to have a positive impact.
5. Conclusion
For white wines, matching music seems to have a positive impact.
For red wines, matching music seems to have a more negative impact, but not for Germany, as the impact is again positive.
Men react always positive on German Music.
Women react always positive on Latin Music.
Research design should be repeated in a more professional setting
AAWE – Ithaca 2018

22. Thank you for listening!!!
B. Niklas
AAWE – Ithaca 2018