Does singing "Happy Birthday" make the cake that follows taste better? Scientists seem to think so. According to a new study, singing, making a birthday wish, and blowing out the candles can improve one's perception of a cake's flavor.
In a study published in Psychological Sciences, researchers report that the rituals performed before eating — even silly ones like the way you eat an Oreo cookie — can affect the way one perceives food.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota conducted four experiments to see how quirky habits and customs affect the consumption of foods. It's not just long-held traditions, like those associated with birthday cakes, that improve food flavor. In one of the experiments, researchers gave some participants detailed instructions on how they should eat a piece of chocolate: break it without unwrapping it, unwrap one half and eat it, then unwrap the other half and eat it. Other participants weren't given eating instructions.
The researchers found that those who were given the instructions rated the chocolate more highly than those who were not, and even believed the chocolate was worth more than its stated price.
According to the study, "random movements don't produce a more enjoyable eating experience. Only repeated, episodic, and fixed behaviors seem to change our perception of the food." The study also concluded that increasing the amount of time between the ritual and the consumption heightens anticipation and creates a perception of better taste.
An examination of these habits has led researchers to speculate that the same practice can be applied elsewhere. "We are thinking of getting patients to perform rituals before a surgery and then measuring their pain post-operatively and how fast they heal," said psychological scientist Kathleen Vohs of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
Do you think birthday cake tastes better after you sing? What rituals do you perform before eating certain foods?
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