Glasses' makeup: the simple and the combined effect of color and shape on perceived volume and beverage intake

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

In order to understand the context of beverages’ intake, it is crucial to bear in mind that there are a wide number of environmental cues which affect both the frequency and the volume ingested by consumers (Wansink, 2004). The horizontal-vertical illusion and the size-contrast illusion are the main causes to the biases regarding the amount of beverage consumed, inasmuch it is known that consumers use heuristics to make area and volume assessments (Krider, Raghubir and Krishna, 2001; Raghubir and Krishna, 1999). Hence, it is relevant to consider cues such as the shape and the size of packages, containers, (Folkes and Matta, 2004; Krider, Raghubir and Krishna, 2001; Raghubir and Krishna, 1999; Wansink and Park, 2001; Wansink and Ittersum, 2003; Wansink, 1996; Wansink, Van Ittersum and Painter, 2006) in what regards to their impact on both perceived and actual consumption. However, the simple and combined effect of color and shape on perceived consumption and intake via the effect of the vertical-horizontal illusion on the perceived amount of beverage has been disregarded in the past. The results of the experiment conducted showed that glasses’ elongation positively influences the perceived volume, while indirectly and inversely affects perceived consumption, the amount of sparkling water being constant on the experiment. Nevertheless, the experiment failed to show the simple and the combined effects of color and shape on volume perceptions and volume ingested by subjects.