Emotion responses under evoked consumption contexts: A focus on the consumers’ frequency of product consumption and the stability of responses

Previous research has demonstrated that the context in which a certain food is consumed (even if imagined) can affect consumers’ associative emotional responses to that product. In three separate studies we extended this line of research by: (1) replicating these previous findings with consumers from another country and another product category; (2) investigating the impact of participants’ product consumption frequency on their associative emotional responses; and (3) examining whether the emotional associations involved in eating certain products in evoked contexts are stable through time. The results of this work support previous findings demonstrating the impact of the consumption context (and its perceived appropriateness) on consumers’ reported emotional associations with a food product, and that this result is generalizable across nationalities. We also confirm that the associative emotion profiles of more emotion-laden product categories (in comparison with more neutral ones; e.g. chocolate vs. fruit) are more variable between contexts. In addition, the emotional associative profiles obtained from two groups of participants that were either high or low frequent consumers of the food stimuli did not differ to any significant extent. Finally, the emotion responses provided under evoked consumption contexts seemed to be consistent (stable) across time. Taken together, this study strengthens the rationale for evoking consumption contexts during emotion-related tasks, demonstrating that this methodology provides repeatable results and insights that go beyond the product and the consumer. Keywords Emotion responses; Consumption context; Appropriateness; Consumer research; Stability; Frequency of consumption