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

Jin A Jang,Ji Eun Oh,Mi Sook Cho,Ga Eun Yeo,Yeseul Na

doi:10.3390/foods10020231

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.

Highlights

The color of food is one of the first attributes perceived and can evoke important emotions as well as flavor expectations [1,2], which can, in turn, influence consumer choices
In test 1, the emotions evoked in Koreans and Americans by the colors and health functionality information of cooked colored rice were extracted via focus group interviews (FGI), and an emotion lexicon was confirmed through an online consumer survey (“first online consumer survey”) [30]
Based on the FGIs, only the emotions evoked by stimulation with colors and health functionality information of the white and colored rice were screened and consolidated

Summary

Introduction

The color of food is one of the first attributes perceived and can evoke important emotions as well as flavor expectations [1,2], which can, in turn, influence consumer choices. Recent studies on the color of food have dealt mainly with multisensory perception, but very few studies have investigated the effect of the color of food from emotional and cultural viewpoints. Intrinsic food factors such as nutritional information and ingredient labels may influence consumer expectations, which, in turn, influence sensory and emotional responses [4,5,6]. It can be assumed that there are differences in the emotions evoked by the color of food based on whether or not health functionality information is provided

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