Loud in the restaurant: Your food is getting more expensive

Noise in a restaurant not only makes conversations difficult, but can also affect your food choices and your sense of taste. The noisy environment often causes you to eat or drink more than necessary – and therefore spend more money. Catering businesses could (exploit) these findings.

In many restaurants and bars it is not just loud, but too loud. This is proven by data from the Sound Print app. To assess the volume, the decibel level (dB) is measured indoors: According to the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, a conversation between two people should be 50 to 60 dB loud. If the level in an indoor area is 76 to 80 or higher, the noise can damage the hearing – for example that of guests and staff in a restaurant.

The so-called Lombard effect is to blame: In order to understand each other better, people speak louder and in a higher pitch: “As a result, the background noise becomes louder and louder and can become a burden,” says akustikform.ch.

But it’s not just your mood that is influenced, your taste and eating habits are also influenced: According to the study, in loud environments you tend to choose unhealthier foods because the noise impairs your ability to make conscious decisions.

It has also been found that you have a harder time recognizing flavors when there is loud background noise. If it doesn’t taste as good to you, you won’t be able to concentrate, you’ll eat more quickly and more. “Loud music can distract people from how full they feel and cause them to eat more than they need,” says Dr. Qian Janice Wang, Professor of Consumer Psychology at the University of Copenhagen.

This is in the hands of restaurant owners, because if you eat and drink more, your table bill will also go up. In the catering industry, people consciously focus on a lively atmosphere and turn the music louder to encourage consumption – this is called sonic branding.

The decision on how the restaurant is furnished also has an impact: Researchers point out that current interior design trends mean that sound-insulating curtains and fabrics in restaurants are now being replaced by covered wood and steel. Also materials that actually amplify the sound.