Self-Reported Emotions and Facial Expressions on Consumer Acceptability: A Study Using Energy Drinks

Area of Science:

• Consumer Psychology
• Sensory Science
• Food Marketing

Background:

• Consumer acceptance of food products is strongly linked to emotional responses.
• Emotional measurement is crucial for differentiating products with similar attributes.
• Novel methods like facial expression analysis offer insights into implicit emotional responses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate explicit and implicit emotional responses to two energy drink brands (A and B).
• To assess the correlation between liking, explicit emotions, and implicit emotional measurements.

Main Methods:

• Participants tasted two energy drink brands, providing explicit feedback on liking (hedonic scale) and emotions (EsSense Profile®).
• Implicit emotional responses were measured using facial expression analysis software (Affectiva Affdex®).
• Product familiarity and purchase intent were also assessed.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in liking were observed between the two energy drink brands.
• Participants reported more positive than negative emotions for both drinks, with 'happy,' 'active,' and 'eager' more frequent for Brand A.
• Facial expression analysis revealed higher participant engagement with Brand B compared to Brand A.

Conclusions:

• Both explicit self-reported emotions and implicit facial expressions provide valuable data on consumer response to energy drinks.
• Explicit and implicit emotional measurements showed a weak to moderate correlation with overall liking.
• Understanding diverse emotional responses is key for product development and marketing strategies in the food industry.