Hedonic evaluation can be automatically performed: An electroencephalography study of website impression across two cultures

• EEG experiments are conducted to capture website impression formation process.
• Usefulness and enjoyment evaluations can be performed quickly (450–800 ms).
• Enjoyment evaluation can be automatically performed even it is task-irrelevant.
• People perform usefulness evaluation only when aware of a usefulness evaluation task.
• No difference is found across two cultures (USA and Taiwan).

The study of cognitive processes underlying Internet users’ fast impression formation is important to understand how people behave in an information-overloaded environment. Here we study how Internet users form fast website impression by investigating which evaluative dimension, i.e., usefulness and enjoyment, is automatically activated when people are required to rapidly evaluate website logos. To capture the transient processes in website impression formation, we have applied dense-array (128 and 256 channels) electroencephalography (EEG) to conduct experiments in two cultures (USA and Taiwan). The results of the EEG analysis showed that usefulness and enjoyment evaluations were consistently performed quickly (450–800 ms) in both cultural groups. More importantly, the results showed that enjoyment evaluation could be automatically performed. No clear evidence was found that usefulness evaluation was performed when usefulness evaluation goal was irrelevant. The finding suggests that people can form rapid website impression, and enjoyment is a critical component in the impression formation process.