Abstract:

Numerous studies have shown that the surrounding environment can influence people’s dietary decisions. In certain instances, people may make food choices based solely on cues from a single sensory channel. Conversely, in other scenarios, people may process environmental cues from multiple sensory channels to make dietary decisions.

On the one hand, unisensory environmental cues, such as visual, auditory, and olfactory cues alone, have been shown to have diverse effects on individuals’ dietary decision-making processes. Based on the grounded cognition and grounded emotion theories, we propose that such unisensory cues primarily function in three ways. First, unisensory environmental cues may influence people’s perceptions of foods, directly impacting their food choices by altering perceived attributes such as tastes. Second, these cues may affect food choices by influencing people’s mental states, particularly their emotional responses. Third, the schema congruency between unisensory environmental cues and foods may influence people’s food choices. Although unisensory cues from different channels may exert their influence through these three mechanisms, the extent of their effects varies. Moreover, the above three mechanisms impact people’s dietary decisions through both top-down and bottom-up processes.

On the other hand, recent studies have also demonstrated that multisensory environmental cues can influence dietary decisions. When people are confronted with multisensory cues in the environment, they first process these cues, during which multisensory integration, inhibition, or interaction may occur. As for the process of multisensory integration, people combine information from different sensory channels to form a comprehensive, holistic representation of the environment, which influences their food choices. In the process of multisensory inhibition, people’s processing of information from one sensory channel may be suppressed by more dominant information from other sensory channels. During multisensory interaction, the processing of information from one sensory channel is modulated by information from other channels. After multisensory processing, environmental sensory cues influence dietary decisions through the three mechanisms previously mentioned. In addition, from a physiological perspective, the food choices made by individuals after comprehensive processing of multisensory environmental cues may be related to the brain’s reward and control circuits associated with foods. Several factors, such as individual traits and motivations, choice paradigms and scenarios, and sociocultural contexts, may all moderate the effects of multisensory environmental cues on dietary decision-making. Overall, the influence of environmental sensory cues on individual food choices may be scenario-dependent, reflecting people’s adaptive adjustments in food selection strategies under different circumstances.

However, the comparability between current research results is limited because the dependent variables of existing studies focus on food selection, but the indicators are different. Inconsistencies among indicators may make it difficult to directly compare the findings of different studies. As a result, further empirical research and theoretical development are needed to enhance our understanding of this issue. In addition, future research should utilize virtual reality, machine learning, and other technologies to further explore effective environments that promote healthy eating for individuals based on existing theoretical frameworks. In real-world settings, individuals are exposed to a wide range of environmental sensory cues, whereas laboratory settings often simplify these cues. The use of virtual reality or augmented reality technologies can help researchers investigate the impact of multisensory cues in more realistic and controlled environments. Furthermore, with the maturation of artificial intelligence and related technologies, future studies can integrate machine learning algorithms to examine the nuanced effects of multisensory cues on dietary decisions more precisely. As new food materials and production processes become more widespread, it is also crucial to study how environmental sensory cues influence people’s choices of foods made with these innovations. In conclusion, reviewing the mechanisms and outcomes of the influence of environmental sensory cues on food choices has direct implications for developing effective health intervention strategies.

Key words: multisensory processing, food choice, food environment, food consumption, health intervention