When listening to liked music, DC and BC had similar panel
dominance curves compared to MC. When MC was paired with
liked music, sweetness was dominant from the beginning of the
trial towards the end, without any perception of bitterness. DC was
perceived to be dominantly sweet after 45% of the standardized
time, and BC was significantly sweeter when listening to liked
music from the onset of mastication period until 60% standardized
time. Liked music has been shown to enhance sweetness perception
in this study. Platte et al. (2013) reported that participants
induced into positive mind states gave higher sweetness ratings in
sucrose and lower bitterness ratings in quinine solutions compared
to when a negative mood was induced. Here, the final hedonic
judgment of the gelati is not fully influenced by the hedonic valence
of the music but may also be influenced by the hedonic tone of the
gelati itself. For example, MC was rated the most pleasant gelato
(Table 3) when paired with the most liked music sample, and this
may encourage a congruency effect, which enhances desirable
sensory taste attributes (in this case sweetness). This is similar to
the findings of Macht, Roth, and Ellgring (2002), who reported that
after viewing a joyful mood-inducing film, there was not only a
higher tendency to eat more chocolate, but the chocolate also
tasted more pleasant and more “stimulating” than eating it after
watching a sad movie. In addition, Macht and Mueller (2007) reported
that eating chocolate after watching a positive moodinducing
film significantly elevated mood, as compared to drinking
water. Hence, we may conclude that the increase in sweetness
in chocolate gelati might be due to an elevation of mood, which can
be explained by emotion mechanisms (Platte et al., 2013). Pertinently,
positive mood states associated with liked music can
heighten arousal levels, increasing sensitivity and lowering taste
thresholds; thereby amplifying taste perceptions