Candice François speaks at the SFAS day dedicated to sensory data quality

Rethinking the Respondent Experience

How can participant motivation be maintained throughout a test? How can unreliable profiles be identified? How can truly actionable data be ensured?

In a context where respondents are increasingly asked to participate, the experience offered during a study becomes crucial. A questionnaire that is too long, too complex, or unengaging can quickly lead to a drop in attention. When attention decreases, data quality can be directly impacted.

Answering a survey is not a neutral act for the brain. For each question, the respondent must understand what is being asked, retrieve information from memory, form an evaluation, and then translate that perception into a response. At each of these stages, engagement can waver.

If the cognitive load becomes too high, the brain naturally seeks to conserve its resources. It may then choose a "sufficiently acceptable" answer to move on, without this necessarily indicating a lack of seriousness or ill will.

A Major Challenge for Sensory Analysis

In the sensory world, this topic is even more important. Taste, smell, texture, perception, pleasure, rejection, or preference – these feelings are sometimes difficult to verbalize precisely.

A respondent may struggle to express what they feel, to distinguish between two similar formulations, or to translate a subtle perception onto a classic scale. Certain biases can then emerge, such as the tendency to centralize responses, difficulty discriminating between products, social desirability, or the over-reporting of certain intentions.

These mechanisms can have a direct impact on results. Two products might appear similar in scores even though they don't elicit the same reaction. A purchase intention might be overestimated. Conversely, potential might remain invisible in declared responses.

This is why a completed questionnaire is not always a well-answered questionnaire. The quality of data depends not only on the number of responses collected but also on how they were produced.

During her presentation, Candice François shared how Igonogo addresses these challenges: by complementing declared responses with implicit signals captured during the response experience.

The goal is not to replace existing methods but to enrich them. By combining what respondents declare with what their behavior reveals, it becomes possible to better understand their feelings and make more robust decisions.

Thank you to the French Society of Sensory Analysis for this invitation to discuss the evolution of sensory studies.

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