Synesthesia: Research of Color Perception with Drinks 

This project aimed to test the connections between color and the sense of taste within a human mind. In order to do this, the scientist conducted an experiment in which five, transparent, plastic cups of lightly colored, Mott’s apple juice were used. Four out of the five cups of juice were dyed unnatural colors including green, yellow, red, and blue. The fifth cup remained unchanged. A survey was then conducted in which participants were to answer a series of five questions. These questions included asking people to rate the cups in order from which they would drink first, asking them their first choice to drink and why, their last choice to drink and why, their thoughts on whether or not the colors impacted their emotions towards their choices and their choices themselves, as well as any feedback they may have had on the subject. Data was then collected and analyzed in order to conclude results. In more ways than one, human senses overlap. 

A genetic condition known as synesthesia is a strong overlapping between human senses in the brain for a variety of reasons in which people who have this condition, known as synesthetes, may be able to see color when reading words or numbers, hear colors when listening to people talk or when listening to music, taste certain flavors when hearing certain things, and a variety of other sensory overlaps. Oftentimes, without even realizing it, the general population associates certain objects, words, or other things with one another. For example, people may consider the color yellow as happy whereas blue is sad, or black is typically perceived as heavy in the context of an object whereas white implies it is light. It can be hypothesized that in this particular experiment, if the color of a drink is altered, then a person’s perception of how it will taste will be negative because it appears unusual, unnatural, and therefore, may indicate a poor taste. One can expect that the darker colors of juice may not be as appealing to people as will the lighter ones simply due to the fact that typically, darker colors are seen as negatively connotated whereas it is the opposite with lighter colors. For example, one can predict that people would much rather drink natural-colored, translucent, apple juice because it is natural to them instead of blue apple juice because not only is it unnatural, but blue is often associated with sad or upsetting things in the general society. It can be inferred that a majority of participants chose natural apple juice which has not been dyed instead of the others which have been. 

Introduction:

This project focuses on many things including human senses, the neurological condition known as synesthesia, color and how it affects a variety of aspects of human life, and human emotion and response to stimuli. Human senses were heavily researched during this project. They connect naturally in a very interesting manner. For example, sensory input that enters the body through the nose as the smell is processed in the same area of the brain as sensory input that enters the body through the ears as sound. Emotions such as anger and pleasure are also processed in the same portion of the brain as the human senses. Synesthesia affects around anywhere from 2-5% of the general population and there are as many as 60 known forms of it in which senses overlap for many hypothesized reasons. Also, it has been scientifically proven that color affects anything from human moods to heart rate and other health aspects. If a jaundiced baby is placed under blue light, their skin tone will improve tremendously. Also, recovery after surgery or another medical procedure in a green room or room full of plants helps the body recover quicker. Plants are also affected by color: a plant's roots are covered in red and will grow larger than that of most other colors. 

The color red increases heart rate and adrenaline in humans whereas blue slows down the heart rate and makes humans calmer. Naturally, humans associate aspects of everyday life with one another. By testing participants of the general public for their response to the color of beverages, scientists can better understand these subjects. During this experiment, five, transparent, plastic cups meant to hold eight fluid ounces were used in order to hold the apple juice. A single, one-gallon jug of lightly colored Mott’s apple juice, as well as four, distinctly different colors of food dye, including green, yellow, red, and blue, were needed to begin. A pre-existing table measuring at least 3ft wide x 4ft long in order to accommodate all supplies that are needed will be used. The scientist conducting the experiment will also need a measuring cup that holds at least seven or more fluid ounces to measure out the amount of apple juice needed. 

Lastly, a grid for collecting data, as well as a writing utensil, is necessary to record the results. Protective clothing such as an apron or lab coat may also be necessary if there was the fear of accidentally dying one’s clothing with food dye. In order to avoid staining one’s hands, plastic or latex gloves may also be used, however, they are not mandatory to complete this experiment. There are many components involved in setting up this experiment and conducting it. One must first begin with setting up the table in which the experiment will take place. On the table, the five, identical, transparent cups are to be lined up horizontally an equal distance apart from one another. For example, all cups may have exactly five inches of space between themselves and the next. Each cup is to be filled with exactly seven fluid ounces of Mott’s apple juice. Of these five cups of apple juice, four of them are to be dyed unnatural colors. Cup one is to remain the natural color of apple juice that it was in the jug. Cup two is to be dyed green, cup three is to be dyed yellow, cup four is to be dyed red, and cup five is to be dyed blue. Each cup will receive exactly one drop of the color dye, it is to be dyed. The food dye is to be stirred in until it is thoroughly mixed with the juice. 

100 or more anonymous participants are to be asked the following questions via a survey sheet with pictures of each beverage: Which drink would you choose to drink first? Why is that? Which drink would you choose to drink last? Why is that? Please rate these drinks in accordance to the order in which you would drink them. Do you believe the color of the beverage will affect the taste in any way? Explain. What emotions do you associate with each of these colors? 

The scientist is to collect this data in several data tables. Once all data is collected, it should be organized into several categories in order to be analyzed. This data will aid in making conclusions and inferences in order to further assess the original hypothesis and its accuracy. The safety risks to this experiment merely include no more than stained clothing or a possible spill of juice.

Participant Survey Sheet: 

For my science fair project, I am planning to answer the following question: How does our sense of sight affect how we perceive beverages will taste? I plan to find out how our senses affect one another. I will do this by asking you, the participants, to rate different colored juices, all apple juice, from the order in which they would drink it to discover why or why not they would drink certain colors. I will have participants look at the following images and then discover which beverages were most popular and why. I have chosen to do this project because there is a mental condition that I myself have called “synesthesia” in which human senses blend together at some point during development. It can cause things such as seeing colors or smelling things when hearing music or like me, seeing letters, numbers, words, feelings, etc. as different colors. For example, I see the letter A as red whereas B is blue or brown depending on the word that it is in. I am going to test a wide variety of people to see how they perceive things synesthetically without realizing it. For example, when was the last time you saw a strange-colored food or drink and hesitated to try it? Did you ever try green eggs and ham in elementary school? Did that freak you out a little bit?

In order to collect data for a science fair project, please answer the following questions based on the above beverages that fit with your personal opinions. Thank you for participating!

Please rate the above pictures in order of which you would drink them. For example cup 1-1st, cup 2-3rd, etc.

• Cups 1 (natural):
• Cup 2 (green):
• Cup 3 (yellow):
• Cup 4 (red):
• Cup 5 (blue):

What is your first choice to drink and why? Please explain as well as possible.

What is your last choice to drink and why? Please explain as well as possible.

Do you believe the color of these drinks affects your emotions towards them? Did they affect their taste or make you think they would taste different? Explain in detail.

Do you have any other thoughts about this subject or any feedback? that chose green as a first choice is 3% because 3/100 people choose green as their first selection when asked to rate the beverages. The original hypothesis that said that people would be more reluctant to try darker colors was only somewhat true. As expected, the blue apple juice was chosen most frequently as a last choice supporting the hypothesis. About 33% of people chose blue last. After that, green, the second darkest color in this experiment, was chosen last by around 26% of people. Slightly out of the ordinary, yellow, one of the lightest colors in this experiment, was chosen as the third-highest amount of last choices. 23% of people in this study chose yellow last whereas the hypothesis expected red to be chosen more frequently for the last choice rather than yellow since red is darker. Continuing, natural was chosen by 11% of people as their last choice. Red was chosen by only 8% of people for their last choice possibly because many people noted that red is often the color of apples so they felt comfortable drinking a color of juice that resembled the fruit it came from.

As the hypothesis originally predicted, the natural apple juice color was chosen first by 52% of participants, followed by 20% of people who chose red first, then 13% who chose the blue juice first, 11% of people who chose yellow first, and only 3% that chose the green apple juice first. Green was most commonly chosen fourth. 40% of subjects selected green as their fourth choice. This is possible because many participants noted that green seemed very unnatural and reminded them of things they consider unpleasant, such as vegetables or something sour. Also, their reasoning for not choosing green last most often had to do with the fact that blue was simply darker. Yellow and red were both most commonly selected as the third choices. 29% of people chose the yellow third, and 35% of people chose the red third. Many people chose yellow later than expected because an overwhelming amount of people stated that yellow reminded them of urine. Red often reminded many participants of fruit punch or red candies. Blue apple juice was most commonly selected as the last choice by 33% of people most likely because blue is very unnatural not only for apples but for food in general and many participants noted that it was simply too dark.

82% of the subjects agreed that the color of the drinks changed their feelings and emotions about drinking the particular cup whereas 18% of people said that the color didn’t affect this. 80% of people also said that the color of the drink made them think that the flavor of it would be different than that of a usual cup of apple juice. 20% of people said that color didn’t affect their perception of the drink’s flavor.

It is possible more people agreed that color changed their emotions toward the drink rather than what they thought the drink would taste like because human subjects have the ability to rationalize and tell themselves that even though the beverage looks strange, it still tastes the same. Within the data, there is room for possible error due to a number of things including human error and miscalculations, trouble with the participants not fully reading or comprehending the questionnaire sheet, and people choosing not to answer some of the questions asked.

Conclusion:

Essentially, the hypothesis going into this project was correct in saying that the typical person would prefer the natural or lighter colored apple juice to the darker, more unnatural colors. A little over half of the people who participated chose the natural, unchanged apple juice as their first choice. Around ⅓ of participants chose blue, the darkest juice provided, as their last choice. The most common reason people chose the natural, unchanged juice first was because it was what they were used to and most comfortable with or what they expected. The most common reason people chose blue last was because it was too dark, looked too thick to be juice, wasn’t as transparent, and they weren’t used to it.

Many people had very creative and strong associations as to why they chose each drink for a particular place. For example, a participant noted that green looked like “strange Mountain Dew” or that blue looked like NyQuil. At least 1/10 of participants noted that yellow reminded them of urine. A good amount of people said that red reminded them of blood. The majority of people said that the color of the drink made them hesitant to drink certain cups and affected their emotions.

It is possible that if the natural cup was instead called “unchanged” or “unaltered” instead of “natural,” results may have been altered as the word “natural” may have caused an accidental bias in making participants feel more comfortable with this cup as it was referred to as normal. If more time was spent conducting this experiment, it is possible that a survey sheet would not have been needed as the scientist would have been able to spend time allowing participants to physically experience the cups of juice instead of simply looking at a picture. If subjects were able to smell the juice, answers also may have been different as well as if they were able to see them in person.

References

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