Emotions Evoked by Colors and Health Functionality Information of Colored Rice: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the emotional responses evoked by cooked colored rice and its health functionality information in both consumers who eat rice as a staple food and consumers who do not eat rice as a staple food. Specifically, Korean and American consumers were exposed to colored rice and its health functionality information and an emotion lexicon was generated and measured based on focus group interviews (FGI) and two online consumer surveys. In test 1, the emotions evoked by presentation of stimuli to Koreans (N = 10) and Americans (N = 10) were extracted through FGIs and the first online consumer survey (Koreans = 69; Americans = 68) and an emotion lexicon was generated. As a result, a total of 34 terms were confirmed. Test 2 was conducted during the second online consumer survey (capturing data from a total of 208 Koreans and 208 Americans), utilizing the terms generated in test 1. In this test, only the colors (CO) of colored rice were presented to one group, while colors and health functionality information (CO&H) were presented to the other group. The overall liking for stimuli in both countries was highly correlated with familiarity. Koreans showed significantly more familiarity and liking for CO of white and black CO rice, while Americans showed significantly more familiarity and liking for CO of white and yellow rice. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to categorize the emotion terms, and the emotion terms were sorted into the three clusters, “Positive”, “Negative”, and “New”, for both countries. Under informed conditions, the emotions became more positive, and emotions in the “New” cluster were evoked in both countries. The current study employed a cross-cultural approach to assess consumers’ emotional responses to colored rice and health functionality information. Our findings suggest that providing foods with preferred colors for each culture and providing sufficient information on the said foods will help to promote unfamiliar foods.

The Effect of Response Conditions on Food Images-Evoked Emotions Measured Using the Valence × Arousal Circumplex-Inspired Emotion Questionnaire (CEQ)

“…For Korean participants, to minimize a potential gap between original (English) and translated versions of the emotion terms, both Korean and English versions of the 12 pairs of emotion terms were presented. The 12 pairs of emotion terms, with the assistance of bilingual individuals proficient in both English and Korean, were translated into Korean based on previous studies that utilized Korean versions of self-reported emotion questionnaires, including the EsSense Profile ® [55] and the Coffee Drinking Experience questionnaire [56]. Prior to the main test, clarity of the translated terms was also checked with Korean individuals.…”

Emotion and Wellness Profiles of Herbal Drinks Measured Using Different Questionnaire Designs

“…Although the EsSense profile ® and the WellSense Profile TM methods have been widely used, the application of these methods in in countries with different cultures and languages should be appropriately performed. For this reason, cross-cultural studies of emotion elicited by food have gained attention [12][13][14]. However, research investigating the impact of questionnaire design and measurement scales on emotion and wellness profiles is scarce.…”