Analysis of physiological and non-contact signals for the assessment of emotional components in consumer preference

In this paper, we designed an experimental protocol to assess whether the emotional component plays a role in selecting a product as the preferred one in a request for choice. We asked 25 subjects what beverage preferred between Coca-Cola and a similar one while drinking them in a blind and not blind condition. Both traditional contact measurements (skin conductance, SC) and noncontact ones (heart rate variability computed from video recording, HRV) were employed to measure physiological reactions elicited by the product experience. Both SC-related and HRV parameters showed significant differences between the blind and not blind trials. Moreover, 44 % of the subjects changed their preference between the 2 conditions. These results point at distinct emotional responses, supporting the drive towards using noncontact monitoring for non-invasive distance consumer behavior analysis.