Abstract Immersive technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality have been recently explored in the field of food consumption studies from different perspectives. The present study utilized virtual reality technology in a within-subject experiment with three conditions to examine whether a varying virtual eating environment can alter consumers’ emotional responses (positive, negative, neutral) to the eating situation and whether the resulting emotional responses correlate with consumers’ wanting, liking, and hedonic evaluations of healthy and unhealthy snacks. In addition, the study analyzed whether a virtual eating environment that generates a positive emotional response can raise consumers’ rating of a healthy snack to the same level as an unhealthy snack consumed in a plain, unimmersed environment. The results showed a correlation between positive emotional responses and the pre-tasting evaluations of both snacks. In terms of hedonic evaluations, positive emotional responses correlated mainly with consumers’ evaluation of the unhealthy snack. When pre-tasting wanting and liking evaluations are compared between experimental conditions, the results indicate that a healthy snack is rated higher in a virtual reality environment that induces a more positive emotional response. The healthy snack was also rated at the same level as the unhealthy snack consumed in a plain environment. No differences between conditions were observed in consumers’ hedonic evaluations of the products. EEG and heart rate measurement results indicate that this might be because tasting a healthy snack generates more cognitive processing than an unhealthy snack. This might reduce the influence of the virtual eating environment on consumers’ evaluations. To conclude, virtual reality technologies might have the potential to support consumers’ eating experiences and healthy food choices by improving their evaluations of the products.

中文翻译：

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虚拟饮食环境对消费者健康与不健康零食评价的影响

摘要 近年来，虚拟现实、增强现实等沉浸式技术在食品消费研究领域得到了不同角度的探索。本研究在三个条件下的受试者内实验中利用虚拟现实技术来检查不同的虚拟饮食环境是否可以改变消费者对饮食情况的情绪反应（积极、消极、中性），以及由此产生的情绪反应是否与消费者相关' 对健康和不健康零食的想要、喜欢和享乐评价。此外，该研究还分析了产生积极情绪反应的虚拟饮食环境是否可以将消费者对健康零食的评分提高到与在普通、非沉浸式环境中食用的不健康零食相同的水平。结果表明，两种零食的积极情绪反应与品尝前评价之间存在相关性。在享乐评价方面，积极的情绪反应主要与消费者对不健康零食的评价相关。当在实验条件之间比较品尝前的欲望和喜好评估时，结果表明，在诱发更积极情绪反应的虚拟现实环境中，健康零食的评级更高。健康零食的评级也与在普通环境中食用的不健康零食相同。在消费者对产品的享乐评价中没有观察到条件之间的差异。脑电图和心率测量结果表明，这可能是因为品尝健康零食比品尝不健康零食会产生更多的认知处理。这可能会减少虚拟饮食环境对消费者评价的影响。总而言之，虚拟现实技术可能有潜力通过改善消费者对产品的评估来支持他们的饮食体验和健康食品选择。