Regional or international food fairs are usually very attractive and entertaining events. For this reason, they can also be very crowded, and sometimes we can find ourselves in the situation of having to taste food and drinks standing still. Did you think that this circumstance could have any influence on what you consume? Perhaps many mothers are remembered saying things like “you don’t eat standing up, sit down to eat.”
One study found that standing for just a few minutes while eating can turn off your taste buds, impacting taste evaluation, temperature perception, and the overall volume of what you consume. .
Lead author Dipayan Biswas, PhD, professor of marketing at the University of South Florida, is an expert in cross-modal effects and specifically looked at how the vestibular sense, which is responsible for balance, posture, and spatial orientation, interacts with the gustatory sensory system, which impacts flavor and taste.
He found that standing for even a few minutes causes physical stress and silences the taste buds. The force of gravity pushes blood to the lower parts of the body, making the heart work harder to pump blood to the upper body, speeding up the heart rate. This activates the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis (HPA) and leads to increased concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol. This chain reaction reduces sensory sensitivity, which impacts the evaluation of the taste of foods and beverages, the perception of food temperature, and the overall volume consumed.
When people experience discomfort, foods that normally taste good don’t seem to be as palatable. Biswas confirmed his hypothesis with 350 participants who rated the taste of a pita chip. Those standing gave it a less favorable rating than those sitting in a padded chair.
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The researchers then provided participants with bite-sized brownies baked at a local restaurant that were evaluated and widely considered to taste pleasant. Those who were seated rated them as more delicious. However, when the baker changed the recipe to make the taste unpleasant by adding an additional ¼ cup of salt, the results were opposite. Participants who were standing did not notice that the brownies tasted saltier at that point, and actually rated them as tasting relatively more favorably than those who tried them while seated.
The authors consider that, based on this finding, parents could use standing as a tool when their children have to consume medications with unpleasant flavors, or healthy food that does not taste as good.
Biswas extended the study by inducing additional stress: he required participants to sample fruit snacks while carrying a shopping bag, mimicking what happens when one tries samples in a grocery store or food court. Both sitting and standing participants reported that the extra weight made the food taste even worse. This highlights the underlying physical stress-related mechanism that drives the effects of posture on taste evaluations.
Additionally, the team of researchers evaluated the impact of posture on temperature perception: participants received cups of hot coffee. Those who were standing reported that their taste was not as intense as those who were sitting. However, they drank less than those who were sitting, suggesting that physical stress suppresses appetite. Eating while standing could help with long-term weight loss goals. Specifically, eating while standing (rather than sitting) leads to consuming less food. In addition, a standing position leads to greater physical stress, which in turn causes the heart to pump more blood.
Another study that we discussed earlier in the article showed similar results. .
Study reference:
Biswas, D., Szocs, C., & Abell, A. (2019). Extending the Boundaries of Sensory Marketing and Examining the Sixth Sensory System: Effects of Vestibular Sensations for Sitting versus Standing Postures on Food Taste Perception. The Journal of consumer research. https://doi.org/
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