Studying the Emotional Response to Insects Food Products

Abstract

Insects have been proposed as a sustainable food solution due to their environmental, nutritional, and socioeconomic value; however, in the western world, insects are viewed as disgusting. This research aimed to understand the acceptance of insect-based products in the US market by studying the emotional response to such. A survey of 826 consumers was conducted using (1) a modified version of the EsSense Profile® questionnaire to capture the emotional response to pictures of different kinds of foods, (2) images to evaluate the influence of the presence or absence of non-visible insects in food products, (3) information about the environmental value of insects, and (4) socioeconomic demographics. Disgust was found as a barrier to product acceptance. Insect food products were positively correlated with the emotions of interest, understanding, daring, adventurous, and worried, and negatively correlated with the emotions satisfied, good, pleasant, happy, calm, warm, nostalgic, and secure. The influence of sustainability-related information on the emotional response to such products is complex and should be carefully considered.

The Crick-Eatery: A Novel Approach to Evaluate Cricket (Acheta domesticus) Powder Replacement in Food Products through Product Eating Experience and Emotional Response

“…Emotional responses were evaluated before and after consuming each product/dish. A modified version of the EsSense25 questionnaire [ 74 ], a check-all-that-apply (CATA) list of emotion terms, developed by Serpico et al [ 50 ], was used to evaluate the emotions participants felt. The list of emotion terms was selected to reduce panelist fatigue when answering all of the questions.…”

“…The original EsSense25 questionnaire includes a list of 25 emotion terms. The modified version used in the study included a 26th emotion term, “daring”, from the EsSense Profile ® [ 75 ], which may be associated with the interest to consume insects [ 50 ]. When answering the CATA, participants were asked to select any emotion terms they were feeling during evaluation.…”

“…When answering the CATA, participants were asked to select any emotion terms they were feeling during evaluation. If the participants were to select the term “disgusted”, the questionnaire would ask them a follow-up question to rate their feeling of disgust (Disgust Rating) [ 50 ] on a 5-point scale (1 = Not Disgusted at All; 5 = Extremely Disgusted). Participants were asked to answer the CATA questions before and after the hedonic questions when consuming each of the three dishes tested.…”

“…Another way may be to inform consumers of the sustainable benefits of consuming insects. The addition of information regarding entomophagy, when evaluating insect-based products, has been found to either increase interest/intent to consume insects or increase positive emotions during testing [ 34 , 47 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. Serpico et al [ 50 ] suggested that increasing positive emotions, such as curiosity and interest, while decreasing negative emotions, such as disgust and worry, may encourage consumers to eat insects.…”

“…The addition of information regarding entomophagy, when evaluating insect-based products, has been found to either increase interest/intent to consume insects or increase positive emotions during testing [ 34 , 47 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. Serpico et al [ 50 ] suggested that increasing positive emotions, such as curiosity and interest, while decreasing negative emotions, such as disgust and worry, may encourage consumers to eat insects. As a result, identifying consumers with a high interest in insect-based products may be a viable way to introduce insects as a food source.…”