Comparing Explicit and Implicit Measures for Assessing Cross-Cultural Food Experience

Area of Science:

• Food science
• Psychology
• Cross-cultural studies

Background:

• Self-report measures of food experience can be influenced by cultural response biases.
• Objective physiological measures may offer a more accurate assessment of affective food experiences.
• Cross-cultural research is essential for understanding universal and culturally specific food perceptions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the potential of implicit physiological measures (heart rate, electrodermal activity) versus explicit self-report ratings for assessing affective food experiences.
• To examine cross-cultural differences in food perception between Dutch and Thai participants.
• To determine if cultural response biases affect self-reports but not physiological responses.

Main Methods:

• Dutch and Thai participants viewed and rated images of universal (regular, molded) and cultural (Dutch, Thai) foods.
• Physiological responses including heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activity (EDA) were recorded.
• Participants also tasted Dutch and Thai drinks, with HR and sip size measured.

Main Results:

• Explicit self-reports showed cultural response biases (e.g., Dutch extreme, Thai middle response styles).
• Heart rate (HR) did not exhibit these biases and showed expected interactions for cultural food images and drinks.
• HR and sip size revealed genuine cross-cultural differences in affective food experience, unlike self-reports or EDA.

Conclusions:

• Cultural bias can significantly impact the accuracy of self-reported food experiences.
• Implicit physiological measures, particularly HR, provide objective and reliable data for cross-cultural food experience research.
• Physiological measures demonstrate potential for overcoming cultural response biases in understanding genuine affective food experiences.