Correlation of liking and disliking measurements in consumer acceptance tests

• Correlation coefficients between liking and disliking percepts were low intensities.
• Bivariate conceptualization was more predominant than bipolar for food products.
• Subjects had a stronger bipolar conceptualization for familiar food products.

Understanding how people conceptualize their percepts of liking and disliking is important in determining which conceptualization process – bipolar or bivariate – dominates our conceptualization process when assessing acceptability of food products. The objective of this research was to identify the existence of bivariate conceptualization by determining the relationship between percepts of liking and disliking in assessment of actual food products. Six consumer acceptance tests were conducted with Korean rice wines, soy-whole-grain beverages, high protein snacks, and ten familiar commercial food products, using liking and disliking unidirectional scales. Pearson correlation coefficients and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the relationship between liking and disliking percepts. Ninety-seven percent of samples had medium or low levels of correlation coefficients, which demonstrated that the subjects utilize bivariate conceptualization more so than bipolar conceptualization. Higher inverse correlation were shown for the familiar commercial food products tested than the novel food products, demonstrating the existence of a stronger bipolar conceptualization process when the products were familiar to subjects. However, the intensities of correlation for familiar food products were not strong to claim bipolar conceptualization. Further research is recommended to validate the practical utilization of the bivariate conceptualization process in sensory consumer tests through comparison of liking and disliking ratings to the rating by 9-point hedonic scale.