Insta can make you taste meal better

New York: If you want to relish food, just hit the photo-sharing website Instagram and browse through the images posted by people of various cuisines and you will begin licking your fingers like never before. According to the researchers from the University of San Diego in California and Saint Joseph's University, people who have seen photos of dishes on Instagram perceive the food to be tastier than those who did not scan such images.

In an experiment involving over 120 participants, the team told them to enjoy a mouth-watering red velvet cake and asked them to either click a photo first and post in on Instagram before gulping it down or just eat it immediately, New York Magazine reported. The findings showed that those who clicked a photo of the red velvet cake perceived it to be tastier than those who just consumed it.

"It provides insight into the effects of consumers taking pictures of their food before consumption, a growing trend on social media sites (Instagram). Marketing managers can develop strategies to encourage their consumers to take pictures of their food," the authors noted. According to reports, there are more than 178 million photos tagged #food on Instagram.