A Frank Discussion on "Junk Science" in Emotion Research 

Understanding consumer emotions is a common business interest, but exploring emotions quickly becomes more complex than anticipated. It’s easy to come up with examples of emotions- happy, sad, angry- but defining feelings and mood spaces is nearly impossible since the term “emotion” means different things to different people.

Enthusiasts can easily get carried away by the suggestion of a quick and easy way to get the answers they want. Most of these troubles can be attributed to a misunderstanding of the science combined with a reliance on trusting researchers who push the limits of the tools and technologies. In an attempt to accommodate expectations and keep the flashiness of the topic alive, emotion research is plagued with difficulties ranging from misused tools to overreaching, unsupported claims. Conducting impactful emotion research requires planning, critical thinking, and consideration of context.

Join HCD Research and industry experts on Friday, February 17th from 12-1 PM EST to learn more about the difficult realities of navigating emotion research and how to appropriately integrate emotion data into meaningful and actionable insights. This expert panel includes Pedro Almeida PhD from MindProber, Toby Coates from MMR, Michelle (Lani) Shiota PhD from Arizona State University, and Tian Yu PhD from Aigora. This conversation will include:

• The impact of poor research designs and overreaching interpretations when investigating consumer emotions.
• Challenges in the space, including problems with terminology, knowledge gaps, and overlooked nuances.
• How to integrate emotion data to make better and more actionable, informed conclusions and interpretations.
• What the future holds for emotion research.

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