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Introduction
Imagine you are shopping at your local supermarket. The sound system is playing some of your favorite songs from the 1980s. You walk along the lanes, contentedly humming along with the background music, when a salesperson approaches you and asks you to sample some new brands of biscuits on sale. Because you were planning on buying biscuits, you agree. While you are tasting the first one and concentrating on its taste, your favorite song is playing. However, the song changes to one you dislike as you sample the second biscuit. Will your perception of the first and second biscuit be influenced by the two songs? Would it be different if the first biscuit were tasted with the disliked song in the background and the second with your favorite song?
Our experience of taste is influenced to a large degree not just by what we consume, but by various situational and background factors, such as the presentation of the food and the surrounding ambiance (Meiselman, 1996; Spence et al., 2012). One important factor affecting ambiance is background music, which is present in many contexts involving food consumption and purchase, such as restaurants, bars, cafés and supermarkets. In such environments, the soundtrack is composed of a succession of musical pieces, which may elicit different responses. However, whereas numerous studies have demonstrated the effect of background music on taste and consumer behavior (Crisinel et al., 2012; North et al., 1999), or the effect of presentation order on evaluation of food products (Mantonakis et al., 2009), the issue of the combined effect of the two has not been addressed. The aim of the reported studies was to fill this gap in the literature and examine whether the presentation order of two musical pieces influences the taste evaluation of two identical products. Marketing strategies of food products carefully consider the packaging, color and design of products (Becker et al., 2011; Silayoi and Speece, 2007). However, any marketing strategy would be incomplete without taking into account the context in which products are presented and sampled. The type of background music played when the product is first tasted, combined with the presentation order in which a sequence of products is first sampled, may have a significant...