Adolescent and adult visual preferences for pictures of fruit and vegetable mixes – Effect of complexity Line Holler Mielby a , Heidi Kildegaard a , Gorm Gabrielsen b , Merete Edelenbos a , Anette Kistrup Thybo a,⇑ a Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Kirstinebjergvej 10, DK-5792 Aarslev, Denmark b Department of Finance, Centre for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark article info Article history: Received 21 August 2011 Received in revised form 19 April 2012 Accepted 21 April 2012 Available online 3 May 2012 Keywords: Complexity Adolescents and adults Pictures Fruit and vegetables Visual preferences abstract Complexity is an important parameter for the appreciation of foods as a bell-shaped relationship between hedonic appreciation and complexity has been found by Berlyne (1970). The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between adolescent and adult visual preferences and perceived complexity for vegetable (V), fruit (F), and combined fruit and vegetable (FV) mixes. Two hundred and forty-two ado- lescents and 119 adults performed three incomplete rankings of visual preference of eight pictures of V mixes, eight pictures of F mixes, and eight pictures of FV mixes, respectively. The three sets of pictures varied in their level of collative properties. They were designed using a 2 3 design by varying the cut, color, number of products, type of product, and combination of products. The pictures were also evaluated for perceived complexity by a descriptive panel. The results show high correlations between designed colla- tive properties and perceived complexity. Inverted U-shaped relationships between visual preference and perceived complexity were found for both the V mixes and the F mixes but not for the FV mixes. For the V and the F mixes, the subjects’ optimal level of complexity was found dependent on whether they were adolescents or adults, frequency of eating fruits and vegetables, and gender. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Many factors in addition to the flavor of a food contribute to its liking (Zellner, 2007). The visual appearance is usually the first sen- sory stimuli that is presented to a consumer and which influence the expectations towards the food. The visual properties may pro- duce positive sensations leading to acceptance of a food, or nega- tive sensations leading to rejection. Hence, visual cues and appearance are essential regarding acceptance or rejection of food (Cardello, 1996; Hurling & Shepherd, 2003). Appearance properties comprise visual properties, including color, physical form and shape, and mode of presentation (Hurling & Shepherd, 2003). Actions based on theories within psychology of aesthetics might be applied to make food products more visually appealing and thereby positively affect food choice. According to Berlyne’s colla- tive motivation model, based on visual illustrations, there is a bell shaped relationship between hedonic appreciation and arousal po- tential (Berlyne, 1970). Collative properties such as complexity, novelty, surprisingness, and variability contribute most to the arousal potential (Berlyne, 1966). Visual patterns with low arousal potential and thus low levels of perceived collative properties are not stimulating and leave the observer indifferent; patterns with very high arousal potential and thus high levels of perceived colla- tive properties are too difficult to grasp and are considered unpleasant. Preferred are patterns with an arousal potential at a medium (or optimum) level, leading to the inverted U-shaped function between hedonic appreciation and arousal potential. An- other important factor is familiarity for a stimuli. Familiarity and repetition makes perceptual and cognitive processing easier, as it increases its perceptual fluency. The more fluent perceivers can process a stimuli, the more positive their aesthetic response will be. Zajonc provided a systematic empirical study of this phenome- non, reporting evidence that mere exposure to a stimuli increases its aesthetic appreciation (Zajonc, 1968). The study of a products complexity’s effect on subjects’ percep- tion have been extended to other than visual artistic stimuli including perception of aroma and perfumes (Jellinek & Köster, 1979, 1983; Sulmont, Issanchou, & Köster, 2002) and the overall perception of food products with special focus on mere exposure (Levy, MacRae, & Koster, 2006; Reverdy, Schlich, Köster, Ginon, & Lange, 2010; Sulmont-Rosse, Chabanet, Issanchou, & Köster, 2008). Only few studies have looked on the effect of complexity based on the appearance of food (Kildegaard, Olsen, Gabrielsen, Møller, & Thybo 2011; Zellner, Lankford, Ambrose, & Locher, 2010). However, to study the complexity of visual presentations of foods alone is not without challenges as our perception of the appearance of food is affected by both the appearance as well as 0950-3293/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2012.04.014 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 87158394; fax: +45 87156000. E-mail address: Anette.Thybo@agrsci.dk (A.K. Thybo). Food Quality and Preference 26 (2012) 188–195 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Food Quality and Preference journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual