Wine Consumers’ Attitudes Toward AI-Generated Images of Wine Regions: Exploring Relationship Between Preferences and Imaginative Conceptions

This qualitative paper with a socio-psychological focus explored the possible relationship between wine consumers’ preferences and their fabrications of imaginative conceptions, both elicited by AI-generated pictures of wine regions. A method of photo-elicitation was used for semi-standardized interviews with regular wine consumers. A set of presented photographs consisted of 14 AI-generated images of wine regions created by the DALL-E engine, pictures that can be used for marketing purposes. Results show that AI-generated images of wine regions are capable of eliciting fabrications of imaginations in the agents or, on the contrary, are capable of suppressing such imaginations. In the case of pictures eliciting imagination, positive or negative connotations can appear. Positive imaginations often appear with positive preferences regarding purchasing wine or visiting a wine tasting. On the contrary, negatively tuned imaginations appear simultaneously with negative preferences. However, the situation is less predictable in the case of images not eliciting the imagination, where the agents focus significantly on the analysis of the objects depicted in the images. In such a case, it is necessary to assess particular fabrications on a case-by-case basis, as it depends on the specific orientation of the image, which can cause both positive and negative preferences. The paper also proposes a categorization of consumers’ imaginative conceptions triggered by AI photo-elicitation.