Evidence on external cues has been extensively reviewed by Okamoto & Dan, 2013. However, the studies were all performed among younger adults .
When consumers select food or drink products, either for direct consumption or for purchase in a store, their product selection is typically based on extrinsic properties such as the product’s packaging and brandname rather than solely on intrinsic properties (such as the product’s actual taste and texture).
For example, recent research demonstrates that packaging not only creates expectations about the intrinsic properties and product uses, but can actually affect intrinsic, e.g. packaging with sharp edges may make the content taste more bitter than packaging with rounded shapes.It is not known whether these flavour–packaging interactions are the same for young and older adults.