The development of an emotion lexicon for spicy food flavor experience

Abstract

The sensory properties of food are the most important source of food-induced emotional responses. Spicy flavor is characterized by burning, stinging, or tingling, which gives a unique flavor to the sensory experience of food. The aim of the current study was to develop an emotion lexicon to measure the emotional responses to spicy food flavor. In Experiment 1, a focus group of frequent (N = 30) and infrequent (N = 30) spicy food consumers were interviewed to generate emotion words after tasting spicy food samples. After semantic analysis, comparison with published emotion lists, and positive and negative evaluations, a lexicon of 33 emotion words (21 positive and 12 negative emotion words) was developed for spicy flavor experiences. In Experiment 2, by applying the rate-all-that-apply technique, a separate group of participants (N = 91) rated the intensity of emotions before and after eating various spicy foods in small portions using the emotion lexicon generated in Experiment 1. Validation of the emotion lexicon shows that the high and the low spicy preference groups can be distinguished by most positive words (19 out of 21) and 4 negative words. Furthermore, participants’ spicy eating habits were significantly predicted by the positive or negative emotions associated with the spicy flavor experience during food tasting. Overall, the emotion lexicon serves as a valuable tool for investigating the affective correlates of spicy flavor across diverse spicy preference groups and holds promise for broader application to various products.