Should emoji replace emotion words in questionnaire-based food-related consumer research?

Emotion word questionnaires remain dominant in food-related emotion research despite acknowledged limitations. Emoji questionnaires can overcome some of these limitations but are not yet regarded as a strong alternative to emotion word questionnaires. We believe they have the potential to earn this right and use this invited opinion piece to explain why. Following a brief introduction about emoji, advantages of emoji questionnaires are summarised: - enhanced ecological validity, familiarity and cross-culturally shared meanings. We then address concerns that hinder uptake of emoji questionnaires, including emoji meanings/interpretations, appropriateness for older consumers and ability to represent emotional arousal (activation to deactivation). Finally, we offer suggestions for how to accelerate the uptake of emoji questionnaires in sensory and consumer science, which include: i) more applied studies using emoji questionnaires, ii) establishing emoji meanings in the context of eating of drinking, iii) adopting open-ended question formats, iv) comparing emoji and emotion word questionnaires, and v) establishing guidelines for emoji questionnaires. An important spill-over benefit of research to develop emoji questionnaires is that it exposes the lack of similar research for emotion word questionnaires. We encourage colleagues in the field to engage in the task of conducting needed methodological research on emoji and emotion words alike.

Automated summary

Although emoji questionnaires are not yet seen as a strong alternative to emotion word questionnaires, they have the potential to earn this right. Their advantages include enhanced ecological validity, familiarity, and cross-culturally shared meanings. However, concerns such as emoji meanings/interpretations, appropriateness for older consumers, and the ability to represent emotional arousal still need to be addressed.