Hedonic contrast under misleading labels: Bidirectional effects across sweet and salty foods

Misleading food labels generate powerful expectations that shape both anticipatory sensory judgments and hedonic evaluation, as demonstrated in the classic smoked salmon ice-cream paradigm (Yeomans et al., 2008, FQP). The present study replicates the core effect and broadens the paradigm in three specific ways. First, rather than relying on a single stimulus, we generalised the paradigm across ten food stimuli spanning two opposing flavour trajectories, five Sweet-to-Salty (e.g. Blue-cheese smoothie, Tuna yoghurt) and five Salty-to-Sweet (e.g. Caramel tofu cubes, Chocolate-sauce mashed potato). Second, we examined expectancy-violation effects bidirectionally. Third, we isolated label-based expectations by eliciting pre-taste ratings from written labels alone, without visual cues. Forty Mandarin-dominant participants evaluated all items under three label conditions (Expected, Unexpected, Neutral) in a two-phase procedure, first rating each item from its written label alone and then re-rating it after tasting. In the Sweet-to-Salty direction, misleading labels produced strong anticipatory inflation of sweetness and pleasantness, followed by sharp post-taste declines, accompanied by expectancy-sensitive increases in perceived saltiness. Robust Condition × Time interactions indicated graded re-evaluation under mismatch. In the Salty-to-Sweet direction, expectancy effects were again strongest prior to tasting, particularly for sweetness and saltiness judgments. Sensory experience substantially reduced or reversed these anticipatory divergences, especially under Unexpected labelling, although hedonic re-evaluation was less trajectory-sensitive and some residual differences remained for saltiness. Together, the findings show that linguistic labels alone can establish strong anticipatory priors across multiple food types and flavour trajectories that are then dynamically recalibrated in light of sensory input. The magnitude and symmetry of this reweighting depended on flavour direction and judgement type, indicating that expectancy-driven contrast effects are robust but dimension-specific. By extending the paradigm beyond a single food and incorporating bidirectional trajectories, the study sheds new light on how verbal labels shape flavour perception and consumer evaluation in ways that are consistent with predictive sensory reweighting.