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

The aim of this study was to examine emotional responses evoked by cooked colored rice in rice eating cultures and non-rice eating cultures. In particular, Korean consumers (rice-eating culture) and American consumers (non-rice eating culture) were exposed to images of colored rice and health functionality information, and an emotion lexicon was generated and measured based on qualitative and quantitative methods. We developed two tests to generate a lexicon for stimuli-evoked emotions and then, utilizing this lexicon, measured emotional responses. First, in Test 1, emotions evoked by images and health functionality information of cooked colored rice in Koreans and Americans were extracted via FGI and an emotion lexicon was confirmed through an online consumer survey (‘first online consumer survey’). Then, in Test 2, we used the lexicon developed in Test 1 and performed a second online consumer survey to investigate how emotions evoked by cooked colored rice stimuli differed between Koreans and Americans. Interview participants were selected among local Korean and American men and women aged 20 or older living in Korea. Koreans selected for this study ate rice as a staple more than three times a week. Selected Americans did not eat rice as a staple; they ate cooked rice less than once a month on average. To recruit participants, advertisements were posted on the bulletin boards of a language school in Ewha Womans University in Seoul and a U.S. military base located in Yongsan, Seoul, Korea. We conducted the first consumer survey to further develop the emotion lexicon as a measuring tool to survey emotions regarding the five types of cooked rice. Survey participants were Korean and American men and women aged 20 or older, and the requirements for recruitment were the same as those for FGI. Korean participants who met the requirements were recruited from among members of M Brain, an online research agency, and Americans aged 20 or older who satisfied the requirements were recruited from Matrix Lab. The survey included 69 Koreans and 68 Americans and was carried out for 2 days from Sept l through Sept 2, 2016 via an online site. A total of 137 questionnaires without incomplete replies were obtained and then analyzed. The survey took the form of CATA in which stimuli were presented one by one to the participants and then the participants were asked to select all the emotions evoked by stimuli from the given lexicon. First, an image of cooked white rice was presented, and the group was asked to select all the emotions evoked by the stimulus from among 60 emotion terms via CATA questions. Then, images of the four different types of cooked colored were presented one by one in random order, with each stimulus accompanied by CATA questions to be answered. Last, four kinds of IM&H stimuli corresponding to the four cooked colored rice samples were presented in random order, and likewise, each stimulus was accompanied by CATA questions to be answered