Images and chocolate stimuli affect physiological and affective responses of consumers: A cross-cultural study

Sensory evaluation relies on explicit responses from consumers. Unconscious responses may complement the information regarding the emotional states of consumers. In this study, physiological, facial expression and sensory/emotional responses to different visual (images) and chocolate stimuli were evaluated using two groups (participants with Asian and Western backgrounds). Panellists (N = 60; 60% Asian-background and 40% Western-background) evaluated 15 images (5-positive/5-neutral/5-negative) and 4 chocolate samples (milk/60%-cocoa/70%-cocoa/candy-inclusions). Consumers assessed their emotions (3-point scale) and liking (9-point scale). Non-invasive peripheral skin temperature (ST), heart rate (BPM), and facial expressions using FaceReader™ (FR) were assessed. Western-background participants showed similar heart rate (55–59 vs. 54–59) and temperature (0.6–1.5 °C difference) compared to Asian-background participants for images and chocolate samples. BPM (54–59) was not different among stimuli. Consumer emotions (images = −0.87 to 1.00 and chocolate = 0.27 to 0.60) and liking (chocolate = 5.20 to 6.33) were evaluated for both groups. For Asian-background participants, ST was positively correlated to FR-happy (r = 0.45) and negatively correlated to FR-angry (r = −0.23) and FR-sad (r = −0.20). For Western-background participants, ST was positively correlated to FR-sad (r = 0.23) and negatively correlated to FR-angry (r = −0.35). Cultural differences were found when assessing images based on sensory responses. These findings will be useful to better understand acceptability based on unconscious and emotional responses.