Designing a Low-Fat Food Packaging: Comparing Consumers' Responses in Virtual and Physical Shopping Environments

This paper aims to test to what extent emotional responses towards a low-fat product presented virtually converge with emotional responses toward this product when presented physically. Second, we want to probe if low-order emotions (physiological/unconscious responses) and high-order emotions (cognitive/conscious responses) converge to explain healthy product choices. To this end, 83 young participants were engaged in our experiment. Two packaging design variables were manipulated with the help of a real company (the color and the message), so that six different packages were created. Two different buying contexts were simulated: A virtual context and a physical context. Physiological responses were continuously recorded in both contexts (heart rates, electro-dermal responses, and eye muscle reactions). At the end, participants provided cognitive responses in a questionnaire concerning the selected package. Our results have demonstrated that low-order emotions remain stable (from a virtual to a physical environments). Virtual simulations elections and real product elections are correlated (X² = 40.493; p < 0.02). Physiological and cognitive responses do not converge. Correlations between unconscious responses (low-order emotions) and self-reported measures (high-order emotions) was contrary to expectations (negative sign). Only low-order emotions explain product choices. On the contrary, real packaging choice and high-order emotions correlated inversely (the t values were significant but negative).