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There is a growing interest in measuring emotions evoked by food products to gain additional insights in how consumers perceive and choose food products. The aim of this study was to investigate if consumers' emotions are influenced by flavour, gender, consumption habits, actual tasting or consumer attitude towards a product. Chocolate was chosen as the product under study as its consumption is associated with evoking several emotions.

During a between-subjects experiment at a local food fair, consumers (n = 910) evaluated either the name “chocolate”, plain dark chocolate or raspberry flavoured dark chocolate. Participants rated the intensity of 24 emotions and answered the 24 statements of the Attitude to Chocolate Questionnaire.

The results showed that sensory characteristics have a significant influence on the emotional profiles whereas no difference was found between tasting and not tasting. Gender and prior liking had little to no influence. Finally, the results suggested that consumption frequency and attitudes towards chocolate did have an influence on the emotional profiles.

The results show that producers should try to evoke positive emotions which could be emphasised through marketing. Gender differences for emotional profiling advocate that future research should not only analyse global results but also separately analyse by gender. Moreover, usage frequency and attitudes towards chocolate had an impact on the emotions meaning that future research should consider those when setting up research.

This study further contributes to the growing literature on emotions. It examines the added value of actual tasting chocolate while prior research focuses either just names or just sensory evaluation. Also, this paper further explores to which extent flavour, gender, consumption habits and attitude impact the emotional associations of chocolate.

This paper intends to explore the relationship between participants' eye fixations (a measure of attention) and durations (a measure of concentration) on areas of interest within a range of online articles and their levels of information discernment (a sub-process of information literacy characterising how participants make judgements about information).

Eye-tracking equipment was used as a proxy measure for reading behaviour by recording eye-fixations, dwell times and regressions in males aged 18–24 (n = 48). Participants' level of information discernment was determined using a quantitative questionnaire.

Data indicates a relationship between participants' level of information discernment and their viewing behaviours within the articles' area of interest. Those who score highly on an information discernment questionnaire tended to interrogate the online article in a structured and linear way. Those with high-level information discernment are more likely to pay attention to an article's textual and graphical information than those exhibiting low-level information discernment. Conversely, participants with low-level information discernment indicated a lack of curiosity by not interrogating the entire article. They were unsystematic in their saccadic movements spending significantly longer viewing irrelevant areas.

The most profound consequence is that those with low-level information discernment, through a lack of curiosity in particular, could base their health, workplace, political or everyday decisions on sub-optimal engagement with and comprehension of information or misinformation (such as fake news).

Ground-breaking analysis of the relationship between a persons' self-reported level of information literacy (information discernment specifically) and objective measures of reading behaviour.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of scent congruence with the brand image in the formation of consumers’ reactions to the atmosphere of a place.

Using a factorial design (i.e. scent congruent with the brand image, scent not congruent and control), an experiment was conducted in a multi-service and hospitality space welcoming both local consumers and tourists (N = 303).

The findings show that when the scent is perceived as congruent with the brand image, reactions in the store are more favourable. It is not enough to use a scent that “smells good” or that is congruent with other factors (e.g. sensory environment); the scent must be perceived by consumers as consistent with the brand image. Findings also reveal that the diffusion of a scent congruent with the brand image improves guest satisfaction, intention to revisit and perceptions of the product and service.

The limitations are both the emphasis on direct links and the focus on a French brand (café/co-working space franchise). It would be appropriate to extend the research to other contexts.

The findings show how important it is for hospitality organisations to use scents to generate a positive impact on their guests. Hotel, restaurant and café managers wishing to enhance customer reactions through the creation of an olfactory atmosphere should take scent congruence with the brand image into consideration.

The study of the effects of the atmosphere on consumer behaviour as a function of olfactory congruence with the brand image uses in-situ experimentation (café/co-working and food and beverage area).