The impact of using a written scenario when measuring emotional response to beer

Abstract

Emotional response to food has been demonstrated to provide valuable information in today’s competitive markets. However, emotional response is likely to be context dependant and hence using a written scenario in, for example, central location tests may increase the relevance of the emotional response profile data collected for products. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of using a freely elicited scenario on the emotional response profile, liking and familiarity of commercial beers. The impact of serving temperature was also investigated. Two groups of 100 beer consumers were recruited to evaluate five commercial beers, presented at two different temperatures (ambient and cold), either with or without a scenario. Consumers under the ‘with scenario’ condition also reported their expected emotional response to drinking a beer in that situation. On average beers were more familiar and less shocking when served at a cold temperature. Using a scenario caused significant changes in the mean rating scores for seven out of ten emotions and in familiarity, but not liking. Certain emotions were more discriminating under the scenario condition indicating that some emotions may be more relevant in particular contexts. Measuring the expected emotional response for the elicited scenario itself provided valuable information showing that on average consumers assimilated towards the expected emotional profile when using a scenario, except for negative emotions for disliked products. Hence, degree of liking was shown to impact level of assimilation. The value of using a scenario for improved measurement of emotional response in central location tests is highlighted and discussed.