Influence of False Aging Period Information on Consumers' Kokumi Perception and Acceptance of Doenjang

The present study investigated the effects of misleading aging period information about doenjang on consumers' expectation formation, perception of the actual product's kokumi sensory attributes, and product evaluation. Previous exploratory studies have shown that consumers perceive kokumi by associating it with the deep, rich flavor that develops during long-term aging. Therefore, this study provided consumers with the same doenjang sample but with different misleading aging information (3, 12, and 36 months), and then assessed consumers' perceptions of liking, sensory characteristics, and kokumi intensity (N = 308). The results showed that consumers rated doenjang samples with longer aging period information (12 and 36 months) as having higher kokumi intensity and liking overall, but that the excessively long aging period information of 36 months resulted in negative disconfirmation of expectations compared to the actual experience. Furthermore, correspondence analysis (CA) revealed that the longer the aging information provided, the more strongly consumers perceived the same doenjang sample to be associated with specific sensory attributes such as kokumi, umami, and well-aged. These results clearly suggest that consumers' product evaluations and sensory perceptions are influenced by expectation formation and cognitive biases caused by external information. This study provides a practical application of expectation-confirmation theory in the field of sensory science and has useful practical implications for product information provision and consumer expectation management strategies in the food industry.