…when senses interact, in sometimes surprising ways. Some fun examples:

Coffee tastes better when you don’t have a loud coffee machine near you, and it also tastes more intense and less sweet if the mug is white.

In the atmosphere of a pressurised cabin when flying, with decreased humidity and air pressure and significant background noise, things taste less sweet or salty.

If you can’t hear the crunch of, say a Pringles potato chip, then it tastes less fresh.

You might enjoy Nicola Twilley’s super New Yorker article, The Illusion of Taste, which has more of the science and plenty more examples.

Crossmodal perception

I believe I first heard this on a Radiolab episode, but I can’t remember for sure. Since hearing it, I’ve reflected on it many times and can’t help but think there’s some truth in it. For me it’s kind of why we’re just not that good at processing the scenery whizzing by from a car or train, and why cycling and walking are just about the best ways of getting around. Alain de Boton, in The Art of Travel, has some great observations about why trains are so great for thinking which I think has a lot to do with this - we have time to think, with a helpful intermission of the  semi-connected landscape and houses passing by that we can only process for so long before we turn back to our thoughts. I love trains.

Sketchplanations tagged with senses