A study from Penn State （The Pennsylvania State University） confirms long-standing research into the relationship between color and taste. What consumers see when they eat matters as much—if not more—than what they taste.

賓夕法尼亞州立大學的一項研究證實了長期以來探索的顏色和味覺之間的聯系。消費者在吃東西時看到的東西與他們品嘗到的味道同樣重要，甚至更為重要。

Researchers gave participants different colors of liquid with different tastes—including bitter， sweet， savory and sour. Participants then tried clear liquids with the same taste profiles， and they were asked to associate them with a color.

研究人員給參與者提供不同顏色、不同味道的液體，包括苦的、甜的、咸的和酸的。 然后，參與者嘗試了具有相同味道的透明液體，并被要求將這些液體與某種顏色聯系起來。

Researchers found these associations are easy to learn， and ones that are currently common—like red for sweet or yellow for sour—may not be set in stone. Six in ten study participants learned new color-flavor pairings after four exposures.

研究人員發(fā)現，這些聯系很容易掌握，目前比較常見的聯系——比如紅色代表甜，黃色代表酸——可能不會一成不變。研究中10個參與者就有6個人在四次接觸后學會了新的顏色與味道的搭配。

Dive Insight

詳 情

What consumers expect when they see a food primes the palate to taste certain flavors. The strong associations between color and flavor are well established in the scientific community. Research on the subject dates back to the 1970s. For example， consumers expect yellow foods to be sour or citrusy.

當消費者看到一種食物時，他們所期望的是讓他們的味蕾嘗到某種味道。顏色和味道之間的強烈聯系在科學界已經得到了很好的證實。而關于這個問題的研究可以追溯到20世紀70年代。比如消費者看到黃色食品時會期望它是酸的或柑橘味的。

Branding， packaging and color quality of the product itself play a big part in creating and maintaining expectations. Food brands have long understood this and worked to establish standards. In some cases， color can overpower other senses and convince people they taste flavors that arent there.

產品的品牌、包裝和顏色質量本身在創(chuàng)造和維持期望方面發(fā)揮著重要作用。食品商早就了解這一點，并努力建立標準。在某些情況下，顏色可以壓倒其他感覺并讓人們以為他們嘗到了不一樣的味道。

The Penn State researchers set out to test if they could teach color-taste correlations， and found the linkages could be more flexible than many thought in some cases.

賓夕法尼亞州立大學的研究人員開始測試他們是否可以傳授顏色和味覺的相關性，并發(fā)現這種相關性在某些情況下比許多人想象的更加靈活。

Although it may be possible to radically alter food colors， it may not be advisable. According to this study， 40% of consumers would be left behind， stuck on familiar patterns. Consumers tend to want to know what theyre in for when they select a product—and color is a big part of that. While its interesting that consumer expectations for colors could shift， the risk of unexpected colors is high for any company. Many food brands rely on visual expectations to pull customers into unfamiliar products.

盡管有可能從根本上改變食物的顏色，但這也是不可取的。根據這項研究，40% 的消費者會落后并堅持他們熟悉的模式。消費者在選擇產品時往往想知道自己喜歡什么，而顏色是其中很重要的一個因素。然而有趣的是，消費者對顏色的期望往往會發(fā)生變化，對于任何公司來說，采用意想不到的顏色，風險是很高的。許多食品商依靠視覺預期來吸引顧客購買他們不熟悉的產品。

While todays consumer has expectations for flavors of items with different colors， he also has expectations that natural ingredients be used. While these ingredients are often preferable， they present a challenge.

盡管今天的消費者對不同顏色的食品的味道有所期待，但人們更希望使用天然的原材料。雖然這些天然的材料是更可取的選項，但它們也意味著挑戰(zhàn)。

Word Study

prime /pra?m/ v. 使（某人）做好準備

adj. 主要的;首要的

She was ready and primed for action.

The care of the environment is of prime importance.

alter /'??lt?（r）/ v. （使）改變，更改

He had altered so much I scarcely recognized him.

visual /'v??u?l/ adj. 視力的;視覺的

I have a very good visual memory.