COMPARISON IN USE OF THE 9-POINT HEDONIC SCALE BETWEEN AMERICANS, CHINESE, KOREANS, AND THAI

Understanding cross-cultural sensory acceptance differences are essent ial for developing successful products for international markets. The most common scale for acceptance testing is the 9-point hedonic scale that was developed in the United States (US) by Peryam and Pilgrim (19 57)Food Technology, 11, 9-14. The objectives of this research were to compare the usage of the 9-point hedonic scale between American, Korea n, Chinese and Thai consumers, as well as to examine if there were sig nificant differences in preference between consumers of the same cultu re residing in the US and their country of origin. A total of 575 resp ondents were recruited from eight respondent cells including two from the US and six from three Asian ethnic groups (Korean, Chinese, and Th ai) with two locations (residing in United States and their country of origin). All respondents evaluated sample pairs using 9-point hedonic scales translated directly from English into their respective languag es. Each respondent evaluated various foods on the 9-point hedonic sca le and chose the most Preferred among sample pairs. Food samples were selected to cover the full range of hedonic ratings for each culture. Results indicate that Chinese, Korean, and Thai respondents use the 9- point hedonic scale differently from American respondents, irrespectiv e of residency in the US or length of stay. These ethnic groups use a smaller range of the 9-point hedonic scale than Americans. Moreover, t here were no significant differences in food preferences for Thai and Korea consumers residing in the US or their native countries. Observed differences in food preferences among Chinese residing in the US vs, Taiwan were possibly attributed to the diverse sampling of Chinese sel ected in the US that were not all representative of Chinese consumers from Taiwan. Additionally, length of stay in the US did not significan tly affect food preference among these ethnic groups. (C) 1998 Publish ed by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.