Editorial: Neuroscience and Emotional Design

Qing-Xing Qu ^1* Vincent G Duffy ²

• ¹ Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
• ² Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States

More recently, few investigations have been done on neuroscience measurements to grasp the emotional needs from consumers, such as, electroencephalography (EEG) (Liu et al., 2024), event-related potentials (ERPs) (Guo et al., 2020), eye movements (Qu and Guo, 2019), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) (Guo et al., 2024), heart rate variability (HRV) and electromyography (EMG) (Caruelle et al., 2019). 2024) investigated how the gender of virtual chatbots influenced user attention and usage intentions. Using EEG/ERP techniques and subjective questionnaires with 31 participants, the study found that female chatbots elicited stronger neural responses (larger P100/P200 amplitudes) and higher usage intentions across genders. Female participants showed a preference for female chatbots, while male participants allocated more attention to male chatbots (larger N100). These findings suggest that chatbot designers should consider gender alignment and societal biases to enhance user acceptance and interaction quality. These studies integrate neurophysiological tools (EEG, eye-tracking) with behavioral experiments to address challenges in emotional design. They emphasize data-driven insights for optimizing design, usability, and safety across diverse contexts.