The Use of face reading technology to predict consumer acceptance of sugar confectionary products

Abstract

Traditional sensory and consumer tests predict consumer acceptance of new products rather poorly, as evidenced by the high their failure rates in the market. These tests typical reflect conscious processes whereas consumer acceptance may also be based on unconscious processes. The aims of this work were to examine whether facial expressions measured with the Noldus FaceReader technology can be used for differentiating between differing sugar confectionary products (various types of sweets and chocolates), and to investigate whether facial reactions are able to explain liking ratings on hedonic scales. Naive consumers (mean age 22 years) were recruited at the Kaunas University of Technology. They were asked to rate the sample with an intentional facial expression, which was recorded and then characterized by FaceReader program (Noldus Information Technology, Wageningen, The Netherlands). The measurements showed significant differences between facial expressions elicited by the different samples of tested products and reflected the introspective liking ratings well. The positive correlations of facial expression pattern ‘‘happy’’, and negative correlations of ‘‘sad’’ expression intensity against self-reported liking ratings suggest that these may be the most valuable descriptors for explaining the self-reported hedonic quality of sweets and chocolates. It can be concluded that Noldus FaceReader technology is sufficiently accurate for differentiating between sugar confectionary products and can deliver additional information to conventional acceptance tests.