Emotional Effects of Product Form in Individualist and Collectivist Cultures

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research investigates differences in visual form perception of products in individualist and collectivist societies to help designers and market analysts design products according to their users’ formal preferences. This study was conducted in two phases. First, five visual form types were selected out of 500 samples by design expertise for the test: geometric, organic, complex, simple, and symbolic forms. Second, three groups of American (highly individualist), German (individualist), and Iranian (collectivist) were selected based on their cultural dimensions. We developed Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with the emotions to focus solely on limiting emotions. Since the emotions were in two opposite spectrums, four emotions were considered as positive and the next four emotions as negative. ANOVA was conducted for normally distributed data and Kruskal–Wallis test for non-normal data. The results of this research showed that people with different cultural dimensions have different reactions, feelings, and preferences to products with different formal features. While individualists embrace geometric, simple, and symbolic forms, collectivists prefer organic forms most. The complex form is rejected by all three groups. This research extends our knowledge about cultural differences and provides a very critical tool for designers to design their products according to their users’ emotions.