\u201cWhen we did a makeover of a fast-food restaurant, we found that softer music and lighting led diners to eat 175 fewer calories and enjoy it more<\/strong>,\u201d said the study\u2019s lead author, Brian Wansink, professor of marketing and director of Cornell University\u2019s Food and Brand Lab.<\/p>\n Wansink and his co-author, Koert van Ittersum of the Georgia Institute of Technology, found that softening the lighting and music in fast-food restaurants didn\u2019t change what people ordered, but it caused them to eat 18 percent less of what they ordered \u2014 775 calories instead of 949.\u00a0 They also rated the food as more enjoyable. The results are posted online in the journal Psychological Reports<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Wansink-Ittersum study counters the popular notion that people who dine in a relaxed environment, with soft lighting and mellow music, will order more food and eat more than those in a more typical dining environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThese results suggest that a more relaxed environment increases satisfaction and decreases consumption,\u201d Wansink said. \u201cThis is important information for fast-food restaurants, which are often accused of contributing to obesity: Making simple changes away from brighter lights and sound-reflecting surfaces can go a long way toward reducing overeating \u2014 and increase their customers\u2019 satisfaction at the same time<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information about the impact of the eating environment on human food choices, visit: http:\/\/foodpsychology.cornell.edu\/<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Cornell University press release: Your mood for food can be changed by a restaurant\u2019s choice of music and lighting, leading to increased satisfaction and reduced calorie intake, according to a new study. \u201cWhen we did a makeover of a fast-food restaurant, we found that softer music and lighting led diners to eat 175… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[208,207,363,12],"class_list":["post-5949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emotions","category-health","tag-food","tag-nutrition","tag-perception","tag-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5949"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5968,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949\/revisions\/5968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/InteriorDeco.jpg\" "\\"softened")
Your mood for food can be changed by a restaurant\u2019s choice of music and lighting, leading to increased satisfaction and reduced calorie intake<\/strong>, according to a new study.<\/p>\n