Does Listening to Music You Dislike Make You Feel Hungrier?

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  • An experimental study published in Food Research International found that people become hungrier when they listen to music they dislike
  • Disliked music evoked more negative emotions as well
  • In contrast, listening to music they like made participants rate their food as more pleasant and satisfying

We can all probably recall some situations when we were very hungry and how good the food we ate tasted at that time. On the other hand, we were all likely in situations where we did not really feel like eating food we normally like very much. Sometimes, this happens because we have too much of it, while other times, it can happen because we are not in the mood or something else reduces our motivation to eat. Many different factors can temporarily change our taste and motivation related to food (e.g., Brondel et al., 2010; Cummings et al., 2021, 2023). One of them is music.

 

Many different factors can temporarily change our taste and motivation related to food. One of them is music.

 

Music and emotions

Music is an art form that combines sounds and silence to create patterns that evoke emotions, tell stories, or express ideas. It can be described in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre, but probably the most important thing about music is how it makes us feel. Music serves as a universal language, connecting people and enriching human experiences.

Humans have long known that music can induce emotions. Since ancient times, humans have used music to evoke different types of emotions and to increase group cohesion or coordinate activities. For example, sailors in the 18th and 19th centuries used songs called sea shanties to coordinate their ship-related activities, which often required much coordinated physical effort (e.g., Atkinson, 2016). Since ancient times, people sang songs while doing agricultural work to maintain rhythm and morale and create a feeling of unity, creating a bond between individuals working on a task. Harvest songs, songs people sang during harvests, are particularly well-known (Karanika, 2014).

People also play and listen to music for fun because they enjoy it, when bored, and in many other situations.

Music and food

Many people like to listen to music while they eat, and restaurants and eating places often play music. They can do this to attract customers and make meals and their guests’ overall experience more enjoyable. However, the choice of music can also be a way a restaurant communicates its identity to its customers (e.g., by playing traditional vs. modern music or focusing on a specific music genre).

Studies have shown that music influences consumer behaviors in restaurants. For example, a study found that slow-paced music significantly increased consumer spending at a restaurant compared to fast-tempo music (Caldwell & Hibbert, 2002). This is the reason why expensive restaurants often play slow-paced music. In contrast, fast food places can often be heard playing fast loud music aimed at attracting customers (as the loud music can be heard from afar) but also getting them to pick up their food and leave quickly. Another study found that drinking songs increased the time and money people spent in a bar compared to cartoon songs (Jacob, 2006).

 

Studies have shown that music influences consumer behaviors in restaurants. 

 

The current study

Study author Phatharachanok Siangphloen and his colleagues wanted to explore how listening to music varying in liking while viewing food can influence hunger levels, liking, and overall satisfaction (Siangphloen et al., 2024). They hypothesized that listening to music one likes would evoke emotions that would influence hunger levels and improve satisfaction with food items. They experimented.

The study participants were 50 young adults. Their average age was 26 years. 33 of them were women. First, each participant compiled a playlist containing 3 songs he/she likes and 3 songs he/she dislikes. After that, they completed three experimental trials in random order. Each trial was on a different day, with a maximum of 7 days between trials.

Trials were organized roughly at lunchtime—between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Participants were instructed to have breakfast in the morning and refrain from eating at least one hour before the start of the experiment. When they arrived at the lab, participants rated their current hunger, fullness, and desire to eat. Next, they were seated in the lab, and the study authors took various electrophysiological measurements of their bodies (heart rate, skin conductance, respiration rate) (see Figure 1).

 

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Figure 1. Study procedure (Siangphloen et al., 2024).

 

After this, food was served (fried chicken and a cheeseburger, chunky chocolate chip cookies, a chocolate fudge brownie, a fresh chicken salad with tomatoes and cucumber, mandarins, green grapes, and a banana). While participants viewed the food, the electrophysiological measurements were taken again.

After viewing the food, participants selected the emotions they experienced from a checklist. They again rated their hunger, fullness, desire to eat, pleasantness, overall liking of the food, and satisfaction. In one trial, all this happened without any music. In the other trial, participants listened to a playlist of songs they liked, and in one, they listened to songs they disliked.

Participants were hungrier when listening to music they dislike

Participants reported being hungrier (while viewing food) when the music they disliked was playing. There were no differences in hunger ratings between the silent condition (no music) and when the music participants liked was playing.

Listening to music participants liked tended to evoke positive emotions such as relaxation, excitement, and happiness. Viewing food while disliked music was played evoked negative emotions like tiredness, loneliness, terseness, exhaustion, contempt, and others.

Participants rated individual food items lower when disliked music was playing

When participants listened to music they disliked, they rated their liking of the appearance of food and enjoyment as lower compared to the silent condition and when the liked music was playing. Similarly, when listening to music that was disliked, participants’ overall liking of food and food satisfaction were lower as well. In the condition when the disliked condition was playing, healthy food items – a banana, a salad, an orange, and grapes received lower liking ratings. In this condition, participants also rated these items as less satisfying, but they also gave a lower satisfaction rating to the chicken burger (see Figure 2).

 

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Figure 2. Study findings (Siangphloen et al., 2024).

 

Conclusion

Overall, the study showed that disliked music makes individuals hungrier and affects their liking of food items. When listening to music they liked (and when there was no music), participants liked food more than they did when they disliked music. These findings can be practically applied in real-world food-eating environments to enhance positive emotions during consumption and potentially influence food choices.

The paper “Lunch melodies: Investigating the impact of music on emotions, hunger, liking, and psychophysiology while viewing a lunch meal” was authored by Phatharachanok Siangphloen, Daniel Shepherd, Kevin Kantono, and Nazimah Hamid.

This CNP summary is brought to you by The Center for Nutritional Psychology. Find out more about the Diet-Environment Relationship at www.nutritional-psycyhology.org.

 

References

Atkinson, D. (2016). An Introduction to English Sea Songs and Shanties. English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Brondel, L., Romer, M. A., Nougues, P. M., Touyarou, P., & Davenne, D. (2010). Acute partial sleep deprivation increases food intake in healthy men. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 91(6), 1550–1559. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2009.28523

Caldwell, C., & Hibbert, S. A. (2002). The influence of music tempo and musical preference on restaurant patrons’ behavior. Psychology & Marketing, 19(11), 895–917. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.10043

Cummings, J. R., Hoover, L. V., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2023). A randomized experiment of the effects of food advertisements on food-related emotional expectancies in adults. Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053231168340

Cummings, J. R., Hoover, V., Turner, M. I., Glozier, K., Zhao, J., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2021). Extending Expectancy Theory to Food Intake: Effect of a Simulated Fast-Food Restaurant on Highly and Minimally Processed Food Expectancies. Clin Psychol Sci, 9(6), 1115–1127. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026211004582

Jacob, C. (2006). Styles of background music and consumption in a bar: An empirical evaluation. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 25(4), 716–720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2006.01.002

Karanika, A. (2014). Voices at Work: Women, Performance, and Labor in Ancient Greece. JHU Press.

Siangphloen, P., Shepherd, D., Kantono, K., & Hamid, N. (2024). Lunch melodies: Investigating the impact of music on emotions, hunger, liking, and psychophysiology while viewing a lunch meal. Food Research International, 192, 114825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2024.114825

 

 

 

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