Publication Tag: Emotion Research

Growing evidence indicates that consumer choices are predominantly driven by unconscious mechanisms, measurable through behavioral assessments. This study applies automatic facial expression analysis to represent consumers’ emotions and explores the relationship between sensory perception and facial responses. Participants were exposed to basic taste solutions—sourness, sweetness, bitterness, umami, and saltiness—at six concentration levels, plus water, encompassing most flavors found in food and beverages. The study focuses on analyzing facial expression characteristics and their correlation with hedonic liking among Asian consumers, addressing a gap in research that has primarily centered on Western populations. Results demonstrate that facial expressions can distinguish between stimuli of varying concentrations and hedonic levels. Perceived liking increased at lower concentrations and decreased at higher ones, with medium concentrations being most pleasant, except for sweetness and bitterness. High correlations were found between perceived intensities of bitterness, umami, saltiness, and facial reactions of disgust and fear. Disgust and anger expressions characterized “dislike,” happiness indicated “like,” and neutral expressions represented “neither like nor dislike.” These findings align with sensory emotions elicited by basic taste solutions and are consistent with research on Western consumers. The study underscores the potential of automatic facial expression analysis in understanding true consumer emotions, aiding product development and improvement.