Can a louder crunch make crisps taste fresher?
The role of auditory cues in modulating the perceived crispness and staleness of potato chips
Turning up the crunch sound in people’s headphones made the same crisps taste fresher and crunchier.
Ig Nobel 2008
Volunteers bit into hundreds of crisps (Pringles, to be precise) in front of a microphone, while hearing their own crunching played back through headphones. The researchers secretly made the sound louder, quieter or more high-pitched.
When the crunch was boosted, people rated the very same crisps as crispier and fresher. Your ears are doing a lot more of the tasting than you think.
A good crisp is half snack, half sound effect.