Let’s end the week on this Foodie Friday with some scientific evidence that support the notion that we eat with our eyes. I know you’re all up for spending the weekend reading a scientific paper. I’ve got one with the lightweight title of Visual-Gustatory Interaction: Orbitofrontal and Insular Cortices Mediate the Effect of High-Calorie Visual Food Cues on Taste Pleasantness which we can sum up pretty simply:
There is evidence that the mere viewing of food images activates taste-related brain areas and elicits expectations about the taste and hedonic aspects of the food . This is not surprising because visual cues constitute a primary sensory input indicating the pre-ingestive availability and palatability of food.
Then again:
Notwithstanding, the sense of taste provides a major input for food perception.
So you can dazzle them with your presentation, but ultimately you need to deliver on the promise. Which is pretty much the business point too. To a certain extent, we can create anticipation through the careful use of visual presentation and we might even be able to get some folks to ignore the actual quality of what we deliver. Over time, however, substance matters.
I suppose there is an analogy to be drawn between the food study (when we see delicious food, the part of the brain responsible for providing the feedback we interpret as yummy taste kicks in) and good-looking job candidates. The study food study found that regardless of the actual quality of the food you eat afterward, your brain interprets it as tastier, more delicious food than you would if you didn’t see those images. I wonder if attractive people get a break in hiring and performance evaluations?
Maybe, actually:
Employer callbacks to attractive men are significantly higher than to men with no picture and to plain-looking men, nearly doubling the latter group. Strikingly, attractive women do not enjoy the same beauty premium. In fact, women with no picture have a significantly higher rate of callbacks than attractive or plain-looking women.
That’s from a study last year. I think we all like to believe that looks don’t matter when we judge an employee’s or vendor’s performance on the job but maybe the food study hints at the contrary? Funny what we learn from food…
Consult Keith 