Linking Categorical and Dimensional Approaches to Assess Food-Related Emotions

Reflecting the two main prevailing and opposing views on the nature of emotions, emotional responses to food and beverages are typically measured using either (a) a categorical (lexicon-based) approach where users select or rate the terms that best express their food-related feelings or (b) a dimensional approach where they rate perceived food items along the dimensions of valence and arousal. Relating these two approaches is problematic since a response in terms of valence and arousal is not easily expressed in terms of emotions (like happy or disgusted). In this study, we linked the dimensional approach to a categorical approach by establishing mapping between a set of 25 emotion terms (EsSense25) and the valence–arousal space (via the EmojiGrid graphical response tool), using a set of 20 food images. In two ‘matching’ tasks, the participants first imagined how the food shown in a given image would make them feel and then reported either the emotional terms or the combination of valence and arousal that best described their feelings. In two labeling tasks, the participants first imagined experiencing a given emotion term and then they selected either the foods (images) that appeared capable to elicit that feeling or reported the combination of valence and arousal that best reflected that feeling. By combining (1) the mapping between the emotion terms and the food images with (2) the mapping of the food images to the valence–arousal space, we established (3) an indirect (via the images) mapping of the emotion terms to the valence–arousal space. The results show that the mapping between terms and images was reliable and that the linkages have straightforward and meaningful interpretations. The valence and arousal values that were assigned to the emotion terms through indirect mapping to the valence–arousal space were typically less extreme than those that were assigned through direct mapping.