In this experiment the influence of color on taste preference was tested using red, blue, yellow and clear liquids. The question asked was: does the color of a liquid influence the way a person tastes the liquid? Researchers have found that color does seem to have an influence on detection of flavors (Hyman, 1983). While Hyman found very little influence of color on the flavor of carbonated water, he did find that color influenced the flavor of birch beer (a.k.a root beer). Hyman found that red, yellow and brown colored birch beer were perceived as having different flavors; the strongest being red, where only 15/20 people stated it was not birch beer, and next being yellow and brown, where 10/20 stated it was not birch beer.
Participants
27 participants were used in this experiment, mostly college-age, 11 male and 16 female.
Materials
The liquids used were Faygo Cream Soda and Faygo Carbonated Water in colors of red, yellow, blue, and clear. Betty Crocker gel food colors (red, blue, yellow) were used to color the liquids. Each liquid was at room temperature at the time of tasting. For our pretest, the colored substances had a little bit of each color we used (red, yellow, and blue) to account for them all.
Before the experiment a pretest was performed to test if the food coloring was affecting the taste of the liquids. To color the liquids, a small amount of each color being used was added. The five participants making up this group were blindfolded. They compared uncolored cream soda to colored cream soda and uncolored carbonated water to colored carbonated water. They were asked to taste each liquid and state if they tasted the same or different. In between tasting the different types of liquids, each participant was given a drink of water to clear their palette.
Procedure
The remaining 20 participants were used to test the question being asked. These participants were not blindfolded. They tested both cream soda and carbonated water. They were presented with either cream soda or carbonated water first in the colors stated above and they were asked to taste each sample and rank them from 1-4 according to preference, 1 tasting the best and 4 tasting the worse. They were informed that they could drink as little or as much as they wanted, but they could only have the amount of liquid they were originally presented with. They were then given a drink of water to clear their palette and then asked to do the same with the liquid (either carbonated water or cream soda) that they had not yet ranked. 10 of the participants ranked cream soda first and carbonated water second, and 10 of the participants ranked carbonated water first and cream soda second. The colors (red, yellow, blue and clear) were randomly placed in front of each participant with no specific order in mind.
According to the data collected color has no significant effect on taste preference.
As shown in Figure 1 there was not one preferable color over all the other colors in tasting both liquids. According to the median ranking for cream soda, clear was most preferred while red and yellow were least preferred. According to the median ranking for carbonated water, red and blue were most preferred and clear was least preferred. As you see in Figure 1, yellow was the only color to receive the same median ranking for both cream soda and carbonated water. Clear and red were ranked opposite in the taste tests of the two different liquids. Clear received most preferred when tasting cream soda, but least preferred when tasting carbonated water. Red received least preferred when tasting cream soda, but most preferred when tasting carbonated water.
The results neither proves nor disproves the tested question: does the color of a liquid influence the way a person tastes the liquid? There is no color that came out as more preferable than the other across two different liquids. However, it is very interesting that clear and red could be ranked completely opposite in two different liquids. First and last in one liquid, then first and last in another liquid, but flip-flopped between the two.
While our participants tasted the two liquids it was obvious by their expressions and the noises made that they did not like carbonated water in comparison to cream soda. If this is the case we could come to the conclusion that clear is associated with preferred taste and not associated with a non-preferred taste, but red is associated with a non-preferred taste and not with a preferred taste. Blue and yellow seemed to stay at the same ranking throughout the experiment.
It is also necessary to take different tastes of the liquids into consideration. Cream soda can be associated with a sweet taste, while carbonate water can be associated with more of a subtle taste. This could change the way people ranked the colors. If this is the case, people associate clear with sweet tasting liquids, but red and blue with a more subtle tasting liquid. If people are making these associations, they would be more likely to rank clear higher when tasting cream soda, but lower when tasting carbonated water; and red and blue higher when tasting carbonated water, but lower when tasting cream soda.
The research is not conclusive at this time. This indicates that the influence of color on taste preference is not as simple as originally thought.
Hyman, A. (1983). The influence of color on the taste perception of carbonated water preparations.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,21, 145-148.
Koch,C. (2003). Preconceptions of Taste Based on Color.The Journal of Psychology, 137(3), 233-242.
Zellner, D.A., Bartoli, A.M., & Eckard, R. (1991). Influence of color on odor identification and liking ratings. American Journal of Psychology, 104(4), 547-561.
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