EmojiGrid: A 2D pictorial scale for cross-cultural emotion assessment of negatively and positively valenced food. (January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kaneko, Daisuke; Toet, Alexander; Ushiama, Shota; Brouwer, Anne-Marie; Kallen, Victor; van Erp, Jan B.F.
• Is Part Of: Food research international. Volume 115(2019)
• Page Start: 541
• Page End: 551
• Publication Date: 2019-01
• Subjects: EmojiGrid -- Emojis -- Emotion measurement -- Cross-cultural -- Valence -- Arousal; Food -- Analysis -- Periodicals; Food industry and trade -- Periodicals; Food industry and trade -- Canada -- Periodicals; Food Technology -- Periodicals; Food -- Periodicals; Food-Processing Industry -- Periodicals; Aliments -- Industrie et commerce -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Industrie et commerce -- Canada -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Recherche -- Périodiques; Food industry and trade; Canada; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 664.005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2018.09.049
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-9969

Abstract

Abstract: Because of the globalization of world food markets there is a growing need for valid and language independent self-assessment tools to measure food-related emotions. We recently introduced the EmojiGrid as a language-independent, graphical affective self-report tool. The EmojiGrid is a Cartesian grid that is labeled with facial icons (emoji) expressing different degrees of valence and arousal. Users can report their subjective ratings of valence and arousal by marking the location on the area of the grid that corresponds to the emoji that best represent their affective state when perceiving a given food or beverage. In a previous study we found that the EmojiGrid is robust, self-explaining and intuitive: valence and arousal ratings were independent of framing and verbal instructions. This suggests that the EmojiGrid may be a valuable tool for cross-cultural studies. To test this hypothesis, we performed an online experiment in which respondents from Germany (GE), Japan (JP), the Netherlands (NL) and the United Kingdom (UK) rated valence and arousal for 60 different food images (covering a large part of the affective space) using the EmojiGrid. The results show that the nomothetic relation between valence and arousal has the well-known U-shape for all groups. The European groups (GE, NL and UK) closely agree in their overall rating behavior. Compared to the European groups, the Japanese group systematically gave lower mean arousal ratings to low valenced images and lower mean valence ratings to high valenced images. These results agree with known cultural response characteristics. We conclude that the EmojiGrid is potentially a valid and language-independent affective self-report tool for cross-cultural research on food-related emotions. It reliably reproduces the familiar nomothetic U-shaped relation between valence and arousal across cultures, with shape variations reflecting established cultural characteristics. Highlights: European (GE, NL, UK) participants agreed on their valence and arousal ratings of food images. Japanese participants systematically gave lower mean arousal ratings to low-valenced images. Japanese participants systematically gave lower mean valence ratings to high-valenced images. The nomothetic relation between valence and arousal has the well-known U-shape across all cultures. The EmojiGrid is a language-independent affective self-report tool for cross-cultural research on food-related emotions.