There's more to the atmosphere of your typical McDonald's or Burger King than splayed ketchup packets, screaming children and teenagers in XXL hoodies thuggishly ordering ice cream.
Mega-franchises pump millions of dollars into creating the perfect dining conditions to serve a number of customers quickly and cheaply, while encouraging them to stay around long enough to indulge in a molten apple pie dessert.
That's why glaring neon lights, high-tempo background music and blocks of primary colours adorn pretty much every fast food restaurant you'd care to sit in.
And Brian Wansink and Dr Koert Van Ittersum both noticed this. The pair are psychological researchers at Cornell University and Georgia Institute of Technology respectively, and this month they decided to pioneer an experiment into the effect lighting and music has on the dining experience.
To do just that, they overhauled half of a Hardee's fast food restaurant in Champaign, Illinois, turning the outlet into a fine dining retreat, with round tables, actual cutlery, plush linen and candlelight. They also piped in smooth jazz to accompany the low lighting and table service.
A random number of diners were ushered into the more civilised half of the restaurant, and guess what: they ate less food, and were less likely to order extra portions, thus proving the fast food outlets' strategy effective. However, they did linger longer over each mouthful, and a poll at the end of their dining experience found they rated the food more highly. Basically, atmosphere did have an effect on food enjoyment.
"Recent research shows that environmental cues such as lighting and music strongly bias the eating behaviour of diners in laboratory situations," said the researchers. "The results indicated that softening the lighting and music led people to eat less, to rate the food as more enjoyable, and to spend just as much."
And that's an effect you can synthesise at home. Every night needn't be a candlelit dining affair, but fitting your kitchen out with flush ceiling lights allow bright lighting for food preparation and, with just a flick of a dimmer switch, more sympathetic lighting to sit down and enjoy your food by.
