Scientists find mental trick to make snacks and music even more enjoyable
Key Points
- Treating a meal as separate ingredients makes it more enjoyable.
- Aalto and Tilburg researchers call the approach multi-experience framing.
- Seven studies found the framing consistently increased sensory enjoyment.
- Greater complexity sharpens focus and reduces distraction.
- Researchers urged brands to use the framing on menus and playlists.
Thinking of a meal as a collection of individual ingredients makes it more enjoyable. Aalto University School of Business and Tilburg University announced the findings on Wednesday (7 October), following a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Ceren Şahin of Aalto University, alongside Anika Stuppy and Robert Smith of Tilburg University, called the approach multi-experience framing.
The technique changes how people mentally process an experience, leaving the experience itself exactly the same.
Diners get more pleasure from a meal when they focus on tasting each ingredient in turn. Listeners enjoy music more when they think of it as an interplay of several instruments rather than one cohesive song.
Across seven studies, the researchers found that multi-experience framing consistently increased how much people enjoyed pleasant sensory experiences.
Breaking an experience into smaller parts makes it seem more complex, which pushes people to sharpen their focus. This makes them less likely to become distracted or disengaged and helps them pick up on details they would otherwise miss.
“Small changes in how experiences are framed can shape how people engage with them. Multi-experience framing is an easy-to-implement intervention that can help people notice more and savour more, without changing the experience itself,” said Şahin.
“Consumers do not always need a new or upgraded experience to enjoy a moment more. When they are encouraged to approach an experience differently, they tend to enjoy the same experience and want to keep having that experience for a longer time,” said Stuppy.
The researchers advised businesses to use the framing in product descriptions, including menus, playlists, video previews and app introductions.
They said companies could earn brand loyalty by drawing attention to the individual elements of a product instead of constantly pushing for bigger and louder launches.
“Small pleasures are big business. People’s lives are full of simple pleasures like songs and snacks, but they are thinking about them all wrong. If the companies who sell and describe these experiences make them seem more multifaceted, like simultaneously eating bread, meat and cheese instead of eating a sandwich, people enjoy them more,” said Smith.
