Odd versus even: a scientific study of the ‘rules’ of plating

PeerJ

article

Andy T. Woods¹  Charles Michel¹  Charles Spence¹ 

[1] Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

关键词: Eye appeal;    Food aesthetics;    Plating;    Visual presentation;    Odd vs. even;    Gastrophysics;    Food liking;    Prolific academic;    Mechanical Turk;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.1526

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

We report on the results of a series of large-scale computer-based preference tests (conducted at The Science Museum in London and online) that evaluated the widely-held belief that food should be plated in odd rather than even numbers of elements in order to maximize the visual appeal of a dish. Participants were presented with pairs of plates of food showing odd versus even number of seared scallops (3 vs. 4; 1–6 in Experiment 7), arranged in a line, as a polygon or randomly, on either a round or square white plate. No consistent evidence for a preference for odd or even numbers of food items was found, thus questioning the oft-made assertion that odd number of items on a plate looks better than an even number. The implications of these results are discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY