a b s t r a c tRecent research demonstrated that noise unconnected to the target stimulus can alter taste perception of food, but it is not clear whether similar effects might be seen with respect to alcohol. This is particularly important, as it might help explain previous reports of higher/faster alcohol consumption in loud music environments. In the between subjects experiment here, participants (n = 80) completed standardised taste and olfactory tests, followed by a taste test of alcoholic beverages varying in strength (0, 1.9, 3.9, 5.6, and 7.5 pct abv) in a randomly allocated distractive or control condition. Distractive conditions were either music, shadow (listening and repeating a news story) or shadow and music (S-Music). We found that exposure to music led to higher sweetness ratings compared to all remaining groups. Interestingly, discrimination of alcohol strength was impaired for individuals in the S-Music compared to remaining groups which was accompanied by increased negative mood. This is the first experimental work to demonstrate how music and other forms of distraction alter taste perception of alcohol and suggest a mechanism by which distraction leads to increases in alcohol consumption.

4 5 Recent research demonstrated impaired discrimination of alcohol strength under distracting 6 conditions. The present study aimed to extend this by examining the effects of distraction 7 volume on alcohol perception. In the study here (between subjects design, 34 females/20 males), 8 participants completed standardized taste and olfactory tests, followed by a taste test of alcoholic 9 beverages (0, 1.9, 3.9, 5.6, 7.5pct abv) in a randomly allocated distractive or control condition 10 [Control, Shadow Music-Low Volume (SM-L), Shadow Music-High Volume (SM-H)]. Alcohol 11 strength discrimination was significantly impaired in both SM-L and SM-H compared to control, 12 but did not differ from each other. We also found that those individuals with habitually poorer 13 taste acuity were particularly vulnerable to the impairing effects of distraction on alcohol 14 discrimination. This study demonstrates congruent effects of volume on alcohol perception and 15 how this can be modulated by individual taste sensitivity. 16