Can Sad Bananas Save Car UX? How Emotional Design Drives Us to Care.
There’s a shift among many car OEMs to label everything as User Experience Design (UX/UI). The problem is, when you group ergonomics, product design, software front-end, ADAS back-end, and perceived quality under one big UED umbrella, unexpected issues are bound to arise. I’d say a big mess is inevitable—especially when UI is mistaken for UX. This is why it is important to follow research trends and not just your ego.
So, let’s dive into a fascinating study by British and German researchers.
Executive Summary
In a fascinating discovery, researchers found that giving sad faces to “single” fruits—like lone bananas separated from their bunch—dramatically increases their chances of being bought. Tested in a German supermarket, this approach encouraged shoppers to feel empathy for these imperfect produce items, boosting their sales and reducing waste. It’s a clear example of how emotional design can influence our choices.
What’s the lesson for car UX? Just as a sad banana triggers compassion, designers can craft in-car infotainment systems that resonate emotionally with drivers. By integrating friendly voice assistants, calming visuals, and personalized dashboard features, designers should focus on creating a user experience that feels intuitive and comforting. These small, empathetic touches can help drivers feel supported and engaged, turning the infotainment system into a trusted companion on the road.
The takeaway? Emotional design goes beyond aesthetics—it’s about creating genuine connections. From grocery aisles to car interiors, designers should leverage empathy to drive meaningful engagement, making us more likely to care about and connect with the products we use daily.
Key Takeaways
Impact of Sad Anthropomorphism: Presenting individual, imperfect fruits (e.g., single bananas) with sad expressions significantly increases their sales, encouraging consumers to buy these typically rejected items.
Compassion Drives Behavior: The study demonstrates that consumers' compassion is a primary factor in the increased selection of sad-faced produce, effectively encouraging empathy-driven purchases.
Applicability to Various Produce: The approach works beyond bananas, showing similar results with tomatoes, indicating that this strategy could be expanded to other "single" or imperfect produce.
Price Discounts vs. Emotional Appeal: While sad expressions boost sales, adding a price discount removes this effect, suggesting that price incentives may undermine the empathetic connection consumers feel toward anthropomorphized produce.
Real-World Relevance: For retailers, the findings provide a practical and affordable strategy to reduce food waste and increase sales of imperfect produce by leveraging consumers' emotional responses.
What Previous Research Says
Anthropomorphism in Imperfect Food
Previous research indicates that anthropomorphism can positively influence how consumers perceive and choose imperfect produce—fruits and vegetables that may look less appealing but are still nutritious. By adding human traits, like smiles or facial features, to these items, marketers have found that consumers are more likely to buy them.
For instance, products presented with facial expressions or as if they have "body parts" evoke warmth and reduce feelings of embarrassment about choosing imperfect produce, leading to higher purchase intentions.
This study introduces a unique angle by focusing on "single" produce—fruits or vegetables separated from their usual bunch, like a lone banana. The research posits that consumers may perceive these "single" items as less desirable. Through anthropomorphism, particularly using sad expressions, this research seeks to test whether these lonely items can elicit compassion, encouraging buyers to save them from waste.
Emotional Expressions
While anthropomorphic designs often utilize happy or neutral expressions, this study explores the effect of sad expressions on single, imperfect produce. Previous studies suggest that happiness and sadness can elicit distinct emotional responses in consumers, impacting their behavior differently. Sadness, in particular, can evoke a compassionate reaction, prompting consumers to "rescue" these items from being wasted. By focusing on sad expressions, the researchers aim to understand if this emotional connection can significantly drive consumer choice, especially when combined with practical factors like pricing. This research not only contributes to understanding consumer behavior but also provides a practical, low-cost strategy for retailers aiming to reduce food waste through emotionally resonant point-of-sale communication.
Can a Little Compassion Save “Sad” Produce?
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to ignore a sad face—even if it’s on a lonely banana? This study dives into why that is and finds that compassion might be the key to getting people to buy imperfect or single produce. When we see a sad expression, even on a piece of fruit, we tend to feel a tug of empathy. It’s as if we’re wired to want to “rescue” it, sparking a warm, almost protective feeling that can nudge us to buy that item instead of letting it go to waste.
This effect taps into a fascinating part of human psychology. When people feel compassion, they often act to help—whether it’s helping a person in need or “saving” a forlorn tomato.
By adding a little sadness to imperfect produce, retailers can evoke this response, making shoppers more likely to choose items that might otherwise be overlooked.
It’s a simple yet powerful way to turn an emotional reaction into a practical choice that reduces food waste. So, the next time you reach for a lonely fruit with a sad face, know that you’re responding to a built-in urge to care.
Figure 1. Experimental conditions and stimuli of Study 2.
Do Discounts and Busy Minds Disrupt Our Sympathy for Sad Bananas?
Imagine you’re at the store, and you see a sad, lonely banana—clearly separated from its bunch and begging to be saved. Normally, that sad face might pull at your heartstrings, and you’d feel a little surge of compassion, right? But what if you’re distracted, rushing through the store, or juggling a to-do list in your mind? Here’s where cognitive load comes in: if we’re mentally overloaded, we might completely miss that little sad face and breeze past it without a second thought. The study suggests that when we’re too distracted, even the cleverest emotional design might lose its magic.
Then there’s the twist with price discounts. You’d think adding a discount would double the chances of saving that lonely banana, right? Not quite. Interestingly, when stores add a discount, it can actually neutralize the emotional pull of the sad face. Instead of focusing on the empathy-driven “I’ll save this banana,” shoppers might switch to a more practical “Great, it’s cheap!” mindset. This trade-off hints that emotional appeals and discounts don’t always work well together—they each seem to be most powerful on their own.
In short, while sad faces on single produce are effective, too much mental distraction or a tempting discount might just steal the spotlight.
Figure 2. Stimuli used for the price discount condition in Study 4.
General Considerations
How Sad Bananas Could Revolutionize Our Approach to Food Waste
At first glance, adding sad faces to single fruits and vegetables might seem like a quirky marketing gimmick. But this study shows there’s real power behind that sad little face!
By giving “single” produce items—like lone bananas or solo tomatoes—a hint of anthropomorphic sadness, stores may inspire shoppers to feel a compassionate urge to “rescue” these items from potential waste.
In an era where reducing food waste is critical, this approach could be a surprisingly simple and effective strategy for grocers.
The research goes beyond just showing that sad expressions work.
It finds that sadness actually outperforms happy expressions when it comes to increasing sales of imperfect produce.
Why? Sadness taps into our sense of empathy; when people see a sad banana, they respond as they might to any sad face, feeling a twinge of responsibility to “help” by making the purchase. This tug at our heartstrings turns what would otherwise be a rejected, imperfect item into a conscious choice for shoppers, blending their compassion with practical action to cut down waste.
A Surprising Twist: When Price Discounts Disrupt Emotion
One unexpected finding in the study is that while sad faces are effective on their own, adding a price discount can actually weaken this emotional pull.
It appears that when a discount is in play, shoppers become more focused on the practical “deal” aspect, which shifts attention away from the empathetic response to the sad expression. So, while we might assume that discounts and emotional cues would work well together, they may actually be competing for attention, each appealing to different motivations.
What This Means for the Future of Sustainable Grocery Shopping
For stores, this study suggests a new way to market imperfect or “single” produce effectively. By strategically using sad expressions, stores can gently encourage shoppers to make sustainable choices. This emotional approach can be more powerful—and potentially longer-lasting—than simply applying discounts, which can change the focus to cost-saving rather than care. For grocers and marketers, this insight opens the door to balancing emotional appeal with traditional promotions, using each approach at the right time to maximize impact.
Figure3. Stimuli Used for Study 3.
Looking ahead, the researchers recommend exploring other ways emotional appeal can reduce waste in different grocery settings or with other types of “imperfect” foods. What’s clear is that a small change—like adding a sad face to a lone banana—could spark a major shift in the way we approach food waste, all by making a simple yet impactful emotional connection in the produce aisle.
From Sad Bananas to Car Design—The Power of Emotional Connection
The findings of this study on sad-faced produce reveal something profound about human behavior: small emotional cues can powerfully shape our decisions, even in ways we may not consciously recognize. Just as a sad face on a lone banana can spark empathy and inspire people to make more sustainable choices, car design and user experience (UX) can benefit from similar emotional cues that resonate with drivers.
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In car design, emotional connections can transform a vehicle from a mere machine into a trusted, familiar companion. For example, in-car infotainment systems can adopt friendly, supportive tones or even empathetic features, like offering guidance when it senses stress (e.g., based on erratic steering or voice tension). By making drivers feel understood and at ease, designers can improve the overall UX and create a bond similar to the one sad produce creates with shoppers—compelling action based on empathy rather than logic alone.
Additionally, just as anthropomorphic expressions on produce make people care more about the item, car interiors and UX features that feel approachable or even “human-like” can help drivers feel more connected to the vehicle. This could mean designing features that mimic comforting human interactions, like calming visuals, intuitive voice assistants, or gentle feedback during challenging driving situations.
In both cases, a simple human touch can lead to a deeper relationship with a product, driving engagement and satisfaction. As this study on sad bananas shows, empathy is a powerful tool. By embedding emotional design into car UX, automakers can inspire trust, loyalty, and a more fulfilling experience—whether on the road or in the grocery aisle.
Disclaimer: This Future Insight is the adaptation of the original research paper entitled: “Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of“Single” Imperfect Food" Written by Svenja Gerecht, Lisa Eckmann, Daniel Wentzel, and Jan R. Landwehr. Originally published by Whiley in “Psychology & Marketing”
About this paper: Gerecht, S., Eckmann, L., Wentzel, D. and Landwehr, J.R., 2024. Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of “Single” Imperfect Food. Psychology & Marketing.