Effects of Plate Color, Food Shape, and Sensory Information on Taste Perception

This study explores how visual and informational cues—specifically plate color, food shape, and sensory information (SI)—jointly influence consumer taste perception through the lens of multisensory integration theory, crossmodal correspondence, and perceptual congruency. Across three controlled experiments, the research examines the main and interaction effects of these variables using a between‐subjects design. Experiment 1 demonstrated a significant main effect of plate color: white plates enhanced perceived taste compared to black plates, aligning with prior findings on color‐flavor associations and the expectation theory. In contrast, Experiment 2 found no significant main or interaction effects of plate color and food shape on taste perception, suggesting that shape–taste associations may be more context‐sensitive and subject to perceptual suppression when multiple visual cues are presented simultaneously. Experiment 3 revealed a significant interaction between plate color and SI: multisensory messages enhanced taste perception only when presented with white plates, but not with black plates. This supports the theory that visual context modulates top‐down semantic priming and highlights the importance of congruency between visual and verbal stimuli. Theoretically, this study contributes to the field by showing that the effects of crossmodal cues are not uniformly additive but conditional, depending on cue compatibility and contextual salience. These findings advance understanding in sensory marketing, consumer psychology, and multisensory design, emphasizing that taste is a cognitively constructed experience shaped by both bottom‐up and top‐down processes.