Valence, arousal and projective mapping of facial and non-facial emoji investigated using an incomplete block design approach

Sammendrag

Emoji have been suggested as an alternative for word-based questionnaires to measure consumers’ emotional associations of food products. As the uptake of emoji in sensory and consumer science is accelerating, consumer research regarding the meaning of emoji in the specific context of eating is still lacking. The overall aim of this study was to gain insights on the valence, arousal and general similarities-dissimilarities in meaning of 52 facial and non-facial emoji in a food context. Adult consumers (n = 460) participated in an online survey including a personalized evoked context priming task for their latest eating occasion, a Projective Mapping (PM) task and a manikin-based valence/arousal evaluation task. As 52 emoji may be overwhelming to assess for the subjects, the second aim of the study was to test out an incomplete block design approach showcasing only 15 emoji per consumer, wherein 7 were recurrent across participants and 8 varied. All participants also assessed an additional ‘latest eating occasion’ emoji. INdividual Differences SCALing (INDSCAL) was used to analyse the data from projective mapping. Results show that the incomplete design and INDSCAL modelling approach work well for collecting and analyzing manikin and projective mapping data when a large number of respondents are involved. In PM, the consumers organized the emoji according to their perceived valence on the first dimension. Individual differences occurred in how the participants utilized the second dimension, with arousal appearing as one of the relevant criteria. Consumers’ latest eating occasion was characterized by a positive valence and intermediate arousal. No pattern linked to the power dimension emerged. The findings may be useful to researchers and practitioners investigating food-related emotions.