Comparing a standardized to a product-specific emoji list for evaluating food products by children

• Published in: Food quality and preference Vol. 72; pp. 86 - 97
• Main Authors: Schouteten, Joachim J., Verwaeren, Jan, Gellynck, Xavier, Almli, Valérie L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2019
• Subjects: Biscuit; biscuits; Check-all-that-apply (CATA); Child; children; correspondence analysis; Emoji; Hedonic; variance; Emoji; Biscuit; Child; Check-all-that-apply (CATA); Hedonic
• ISSN: 0950-3293; 1873-6343
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2018.09.007

•Product-specific emoji list based upon literature and consumer input.•Emoji measurements provide additional information beyond liking.•Product-specific emoji list discriminates better than standardized list. There is a growing interest in the emotional associations of children to food products in order to better understand their preferences. Recently, emoji were suggested as a novel way to assess these emotional associations. In this study, 172 children aged 8–11 years evaluated the emotional profile of five biscuits in a check-all-that-apply task, where half of the subjects (n = 87) evaluated the applicability of 38 emoji obtained from a standardized emoji list, while the other half (n = 85) worked with 20 emoji from a product-specific emoji list. A similar average number of emoji were used by the participants for the emotional profiling of the samples in both approaches. Results showed that the product-specific emoji list was better able to discriminate between product samples compared to the standardized emoji list. Several emoji were even discriminating between similarly liked samples when using a product-specific emoji list, while only one emoji was able to discriminate between equally-liked samples when using a standardized emoji list. Both approaches produced similar emotional spaces and product configurations, although one needs to consider that the first dimension of the correspondence analysis for the product-specific emoji list explained over 90% of the total variance against 60% for the standardized list. While more research is recommended, this study indicates that a product-specific emoji list could facilitate the emotional product discrimination by children.