74 SenSory incongruity in the food and beverage Sector Betina Piqueras-Fiszman & Charles Spence i n most cases, when we come across a product, we perceive it with our eyes frst. That is, visual information is normally available to us from a greater distance than is the information provided by any of the other senses such as audition, smell, touch, and especially taste (Stevenson, 2009). During such initial mental processing, the visual attributes of the stimulus will likely evoke spontaneous impressions (or expectations) in our minds about what is in front of us (Cardello, 1996). In the case of food and beverage products, then, the viewer rapidly creates an opinion (or prediction) about how the product might taste and smell, not to mention what its oral-somatosensory and auditory properties might be like. These product-centred expectations or beliefs (Anon., 1980; Olson & Dover, 1979) are based primarily on our previous experiences with the product itself, or else with similar products (Oliver & Winer, 1987). Of course, labelling and advertising can also play an important role here (Jaeger & MacFie, 2001, Piqueras-Fiszman, Ares, & Varela, 2011; Wansink, van Ittersum, & Painter, 2004, 2005). In the case of food and beverage items, these visually-derived expectations are sometimes referred to as ‘visual favour’ (e.g. Masurovsky, 1939; Spence, Levitan, Shankar, & Zampini, 2010). It is, however, important to note that predictions concerning a food or beverage’s taste and favour always involve some degree of uncertainty. That is, no matter how accurate the information provided by our eyes, they can never actually experience the taste and flavour. In more philosophical terms, one might say that visual favour is always ‘indirect’. What this means in practice, is that there is always a possibility that when the ‘moment of truth’ comes, and any one (or more) of the other sensory properties of