How do you feel when you smell this? Optimization of a verbal measurement of odor-elicited emotions

Emotional response to sherry wines and its relationship with emotional intelligence, level of expertise and gender

Emotional elicitation during wine consumption is a complex fenomena based on subjective experience and influence by physiological, cognitive and behavioural changes. The present study used a quasi-experimental design to examine consumers' emotional responses during blind tastings of sherry wines, considering variables such as consumer experience, gender and Emotional Intelligence (EI). 66 participants were classified as non-expert (34) and expert (32) consumers to participate in blind tastings. Their emotional responses were measured using the EsSense25 Scale and the Perceived Emotional Intelligence was assessed through the Trait Meta-Mood Scale. Few differences were observed on emotional elicitation based on gender or consumer experience (non-expert vs expert), however the interaction of these variables was a good predictor of emotional response variance. Wine type also has an effect on emotional response, emphasising the role of sherry wine characteristics in consumer emotions. Furthermore, the Emotional Attention, one of the three dimensions of Emotional Intelligence, was found as a good predictor for the emotional responses to wine consumption. This relationship may be a key factor in understanding the differences between responsible consumption and excessive consumption, as indicated by research focused on binge drinking.

Contribution of cosmetic ingredients and skin care textures to emotions

OBJECTIVE

Emotions play an important role in consumers' perception of a sensory experience. The objective of this work was to investigate the ability of basic skin care formulas (i.e. without interference of odour, colour and packaging) and pillar ingredients (i.e. emollients and rheology modifiers) to elicit emotions. Another objective was to track, as claimed by neurocosmetics, the possible effect of formulas to trigger emotions from their direct biochemical effects on the skin.

METHODS

Standard methodologies were mobilized, combining subjective and behavioural parameters (i.e. verbatim, prosody and gesture). Sense and Story methodology based on a collection of metaphoric verbatim was conducted after an induction phase. In addition, an experimental electrophysiological real-time visualization method was tried as a first experience in cosmetics. Finally, the ability of formulations with emotional benefits to modulate the release of neuropeptides by sensory neurons was evaluated on a 3D human model (epidermis co-cultured with sensory neurons).

RESULTS

Skin care formulas were shown to play a role in emotional potential and the types of emotion generated, while changing one ingredient mostly acted on the intensity of the emotions. Verbatim provided contrasted answers depending on the protocol, highlighting the interest of non-verbal approaches to detect subtle effects. The in vitro model substantiated physiological effects of skin care formulas with emotional potential on human skin sensory neuron activity.

CONCLUSION

Emotions were impacted by the change in ingredients and were better captured through non-verbal methods.

NEOS: An odour-induced affect scale for use in the cosmetic industry

This work proposes an odour-induced affect scale for use in the cosmetic industry that relies on the approach that produced the UniGEOS, a universal odour-related emotional scale from the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences. The Natura Emotion and Odor Scale (NEOS) was built on experiments conducted with a larger set of participants (491) and a set of 35 scents that combine seven commercial perfumes from Natura & Co cosmetic company with 28 odours from different olfactory classes important for the cosmetic industry. The results showed the stability of 60 Emotion-Related terms in Brazilian Portuguese split into five emotion-related dimensions: Romance, Attention, Energy, Well-being and Negative feelings. The association of the scents evoking these five dimensions has direct implications in the design of new products.

Emotional responses to taste and smell stimuli: Self-reports, physiological measures, and a potential role for individual and genetic factors

Taste and olfaction elicit conscious feelings by direct connection with the neural circuits of emotions that affects physiological responses in the body (e.g., heart rate and skin conductance). While sensory attributes are strong determinants of food liking, other factors such as emotional reactions to foods may be better predictors of consumer choices even for products that are equally-liked. Thus, important insights can be gained for understanding the full spectrum of emotional reactions to foods that inform the activities of product developers and marketers, eating psychologist and nutritionists, and policy makers. Today, self-reported questionnaires and physiological measures are the most common tools applied to study variations in emotional perception. The present review discusses these methodological approaches, underlining their different strengths and weaknesses. We also discuss a small, emerging literature suggesting that individual differences and genetic variations in taste and smell perception, like the genetic ability to perceive the bitter compound PROP, may also play a role in emotional reactions to aromas and foods.

Examining the consumer view of refreshing perception, relevant fruits, vegetables, soft drinks, and beers, and consumer age and gender segmentations

Consumer perspective of refreshing perception is underexplored, despite it being an emotional attribute to describe foods, beverages, hygiene products, and household items. An online survey (N = 1518) was designed to collect consumer insight into the importance of refreshing, the definition and factors related to it, and the identification of refreshing fruits, vegetables, and drinks. Nearly all participants (99.8%) cited that they have had the need to consume a food or beverage to feel refreshed, and 76.3% cited that they need this at least once per day. The factors most associated with refreshing were thirst-quenching (84.1%), temperature (86.2%), and cooling taste (86.0%). Water (86.6%), watermelons (80.8%), and cucumbers (83.5%) were the beverages/foods most frequently specified as refreshing. A second survey (N = 1050) examined refreshing perception specifically related to beer consumption and associated flavor. Beer was rated highly refreshing by 75.5% of participants, affirming its refreshing reputation. Refreshing perceived from beer was most associated with cool temperature (95.4%), flavor of the beer (88.6%), lightened mood (87.1%), and thirst-quenching (49.0%). Beers with crisp/clean flavors (87.3%) and citrus flavors (35.7%-51.7%) were most frequently specified as refreshing. There were no gender differences in the definition of refreshing and associated thirst-quenching and cold, although age differences in defining beer refreshing were significant (p ≤ .05). There were significant gender and age differences in types of refreshing vegetables, soft drinks, beer flavors, and varieties. The study provided consumer insight into refreshing perception and the gained knowledge could be used in new product design.

Consumer Hedonic Ratings and Associated Sensory Characteristics and Emotional Responses to Fourteen Pecan Varieties Grown in Texas

Pecan is one of the top five most widely consumed tree nuts, and pecan nut quality is a major factor for consideration in breeding better pecan cultivars for use by producers. However, the pecan industry faces a hurdle to evaluate its nutmeat taste, and there has so far been limited evaluation of consumer attitudes toward pecan nutmeat. This study aimed to investigate the consumer (n = 198) hedonic rating, diagnostic sensory attribute intensity, and emotional response for 14 pecan samples, consisting of native/seedling and improved varieties. The results showed all kernels received positive hedonic scores (>5, 9-point hedonic scale) for overall acceptance and the acceptability of size, interior color, typical-pecan flavor, and raw-nut flavor. The primary sensory attributes (intensities > 5.0, 0−10 line scale) were typical-pecan and raw-nut flavors, followed by buttery flavor, sweetness, and astringency. Kernel off-flavors were not perceived in general. For 20 emotion-associated terms, the intensity of the satiating effect was medium, while the energizing effect was lower. The major emotional responses were healthy, satisfied, and comfort, followed by calm, interested, premium, and relaxed. Kernel variety difference was significant (p ≤ 0.05) for all these measured variables. Consumer overall acceptance toward pecan kernels was driven by the acceptability of flavor and interior color, flavor intensities, no off-flavors, and positive emotional responses; kernel size was not an impactful factor. The six most preferred varieties were 86TX2-1.5, Pawnee, Barton, 1997-09-0012, 1991-01-0026, and Harris Super. This study is the first to use consumer input to assess nut quality and consumption preference and will be foundational to ongoing breeding programs to develop new pecan cultivars that will better meet consumer preferences and expectations, and therefore will be accepted by the processing industry and growers.

Entorhinal Cortex and Persistent Olfactory Loss in COVID-19 Patients: A Neuroanatomical Hypothesis. Comment on Fiorentino et al. Correlations between Persistent Olfactory and Semantic Memory Disorders after SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Brain Sci. 2022, 12, 714

Recently, Fiorentino et al. [...]

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

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.

Relaxing and stimulating effects of odors on time perception and their modulation by expectancy

Although several studies have reported relaxing and stimulating effects of odors on physiology and behavior, little is known about their underlying mechanisms. It has been proposed that participant expectancy could explain these activation effects. Since emotional stimuli are known to modulate time perception, here we used the temporal bisection task to determine whether odors have objective relaxing and stimulating effects by respectively slowing down or speeding up the internal clock and whether prior expectancy could alter these effects. In Experiment 1, 118 participants were presented either with a strawberry odor or an odorless blank. In Experiment 2, 132 participants were presented either with a lemon odor or an odorless blank. In both experiments, expectancy was manipulated using suggestion (verbal instructions). The stimulus was either described as relaxing or stimulating, or was not described. In the absence of prior suggestion, findings showed that, compared to participants presented with an odorless blank, participants presented with the strawberry odor underestimated sound durations (i.e., a relaxing effect) whereas participants presented with the lemon odor overestimated them (i.e., a stimulating effect). These results confirm that pleasant odors can have objective relaxing and stimulating effects by themselves, which are better explained by arousal-based mechanisms rather than attentional distraction. Furthermore, in both experiments, incongruent suggestions undid the effects of both odors without reversing them completely (i.e., strawberry did not become stimulating even if participants were told so). Both these bottom-up and top-down influences should be considered when investigating the emotional impact of odors on human behavior.

Coffee Drinking and Emotions: Are There Key Sensory Drivers for Emotions?

In the past couple of decades the coffee market has exploded, and to remain competitive, it is important to identify the key drivers for consumer acceptance of coffee. This study expanded on the previous emotion study on a population of coffee drinkers in Manhattan, Kansas, USA and focused on identifying the sensory drivers of emotional responses elicited during the coffee drinking experience (CDE). A trained coffee panel performed a descriptive analysis of six coffee samples and identified the key sensory attributes that discriminated each coffee. Utilizing Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR), the descriptive data were then mapped with the emotion data to identify sensory drivers for eliciting the emotional responses. The sensory characteristics of dark roast coffee (roast–aroma and flavor, burnt–aroma and flavor, bitter, and body) might elicit positive-high energy feelings for this population of coffee users. Tobacco (flavor) and cocoa (aroma) may also be responsible for positive emotions (content, good, and pleasant). Citrus and acidity seemed to be negative sensory drivers as they induced the feeling of off-balance. Sensory descriptive data could be useful to describe emotion profiles elicited by coffee drinking, which could help the coffee industry create coffee products for different segments of coffee drinkers.

Methods for Evaluating Emotions Evoked by Food Experiences: A Literature Review

Besides sensory characteristics of food, food-evoked emotion is a crucial factor in predicting consumer's food preference and therefore in developing new products. Many measures have been developed to assess food-evoked emotions. The aim of this literature review is (i) to give an exhaustive overview of measures used in current research and (ii) to categorize these methods along measurement level (physiological, behavioral, and cognitive) and emotional processing level (unconscious sensory, perceptual/early cognitive, and conscious/decision making) level. This 3 × 3 categorization may help researchers to compile a set of complementary measures (“toolbox”) for their studies. We included 101 peer-reviewed articles that evaluate consumer's emotions and were published between 1997 and 2016, providing us with 59 different measures. More than 60% of these measures are based on self-reported, subjective ratings and questionnaires (cognitive measurement level) and assess the conscious/decision-making level of emotional processing. This multitude of measures and their overrepresentation in a single category hinders the comparison of results across studies and building a complete multi-faceted picture of food-evoked emotions. We recommend (1) to use widely applied, validated measures only, (2) to refrain from using (highly correlated) measures from the same category but use measures from different categories instead, preferably covering all three emotional processing levels, and (3) to acquire and share simultaneously collected physiological, behavioral, and cognitive datasets to improve the predictive power of food choice and other models.

Influences of Product Temperature on Emotional Responses to, and Sensory Attributes of, Coffee and Green Tea Beverages

Coffee and green tea are popular beverages consumed at both hot and cold temperatures. When people consume hot beverages concurrently with other activities, they may experience at different temperatures over the period of consumption. However, there has been limited research investigating the effects of product temperatures on emotional responses and sensory attributes of beverages. This study aimed to determine whether emotional responses to, and sensory attributes of, brewed coffee and green tea vary as a function of sample temperature. Using a check-all-that-apply (CATA) method, 157 participants (79 for coffee and 78 for green tea) were asked to evaluate either coffee or green tea samples served at cold (5°C), ambient (25°C), and hot (65°C) temperatures with respect to emotional responses and sensory attributes. The results showed that sample temperature could have significant influences on emotional responses to, and sensory attributes of, coffee and green tea samples. More specifically, 6 and 18 sensory attributes of coffee and green tea samples, respectively, significantly differed with sample temperature. Beverage samples evaluated at 65°C were characterized, regardless of activation/arousal level, by positive emotional responses terms and favorable sensory attributes. While beverages evaluated at 25°C were associated more with negative emotional responses with low activation/arousal, those evaluated at 5°C were more frequently characterized as having negative emotional responses with high activation/arousal. Sensory and emotional drivers of liking for both coffee and green tea differed both with sample temperature and gender. While both emotional responses and sensory attributes were identified as drivers of liking among females, only emotional responses were identified as drivers of liking among males. In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence that both emotional responses to, and sensory attributes of, coffee and green tea beverages can vary with sample temperatures. To provide a better understanding of product characteristics, emotional responses to, and sensory attributes of, coffee or green tea beverages should be tested over a wider range of product temperatures.

Eye Contact Judgment Is Influenced by Perceivers' Social Anxiety But Not by Their Affective State

Fast and accurate judgment of whether another person is making eye contact or not is crucial for our social interaction. As affective states have been shown to influence social perceptions and judgments, we investigated the influence of observers’ own affective states and trait anxiety on their eye contact judgments. In two experiments, participants were required to judge whether animated faces (Experiment 1) and real faces (Experiment 2) with varying gaze angles were looking at them or not. Participants performed the task in pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant odor conditions. The results from two experiments showed that eye contact judgments were not modulated by observers’ affective state, yet participants with higher levels of social anxiety accepted a wider range of gaze deviations from the direct gaze as eye contact. We conclude that gaze direction judgments depend on individual differences in affective predispositions, yet they are not amenable to situational affective influences.

Development and Application of a Test for Food-Induced Emotions

This study aimed to develop a test to measure food-induced emotions suitable for stable food and beverages. All of the experiments were conducted under the conditions of a consumer sensory evaluation according to German standard DIN 10974. Test development included descriptors’ derivation and factor analysis as well as a comparison between the new test (empathic food test, EFT) and a hedonic sensory test and an unspecific psychological test, known as a multidimensional mood questionnaire (MDMQ). Nineteen sensory experts derived twelve items using free-choice profiling. After an exploratory factor analyses, ten of the intended twelve items were integrated into two scales. To compare the new questionnaire (EFT) to the MDMQ and a hedonic test, panels of 59 (EFT), 64 (MDMQ) and 63 (hedonic sensory test) untrained individuals described their perceptions after consuming sensorially similar pairs of milk, water, bread and sugar. The benchmark of comparison was the power to discriminate between the food pairs. Test-retest replicability was demonstrated. All three tests presented slight differences in sample preference and effect size depending on the offered products. These findings underscore the need to test new methods with a wide range of products. Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between sensorial perception and emotional response.

Recent developments in identifying and quantifying emotions during food consumption

Emotions and the consumption of food and beverages are inextricably intertwined. As the fields of sensory and consumer science seek to better conceptualize the consumer experience, interest in emotion measurement is growing. Emotions can provide key information to differentiate between products and predict consumer choice as well as give more detail about product perception. There are several emotion measurement instruments, including physiological methods and facial recognition, self-reported verbal emotion measurement and self-reported visual emotion measurement. This review discusses the purpose of measuring emotions, what is the definition of an emotion, what different instruments are available, and touches upon some promising research to deepen the connection between food and emotions. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.