Emotional impact of audiovisual institutional communication stimuli: an analysis using FaceReader
Keywords:
Neuromarketing, FaceReader, facial recognition, institutional communicationAbstract
Institutional communication in universities plays a fundamental role in academic promotion, institutional positioning, and fostering emotional connections with prospective students. In this context, it is important to examine how audiovisual content used by higher education institutions elicits emotional responses. The aim of this study was to analyze the emotional impact generated by three institutional communication audiovisual stimuli from the Technical University of Cotopaxi using FaceReader version 9 software. The research adopted a quantitative approach with a non-experimental, cross-sectional, and descriptive-comparative design. The study population consisted of 303 first-semester students from the Faculty of Administrative and Economic Sciences, from which a sample was selected through stratified sampling by academic program. Data were collected while participants viewed three institutional videos: an introduction to the Salcedo campus, a presentation of the Tourism program, and a presentation of the Communication program. The analysis considered the basic emotions recorded by FaceReader: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. The results revealed that sadness was the predominant emotion across the three audiovisual stimuli, followed by anger. The findings indicate that the audiovisual content had a limited capacity to generate positive emotional responses and highlight the need to strengthen its narrative, visual, and testimonial design. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the usefulness of automated facial analysis as a tool for optimizing institutional communication in higher education.
Downloads
References
Aguado González, L., Sañudo, Y., & Sierra-Pérez, J. (2025). Identificación de reacciones emocionales mediante análisis cualitativo de audio y texto: Un enfoque comparativo de metodologías. Jornada de Jóvenes Investigadores del I3A, 13. https://doi.org/10.26754/jji-i3a.202511919
Bautista Garzón, J., Castro Analuiza, J., & Abril Freire, M. (2023). Naturaleza y alcance del seguimiento ocular como herramienta del neuromarketing. Revista Científica Ecociencia, 10(2), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.21855/ecociencia.102.778
Bekenova, G., & Orazgaliyeva, E. B. (2025). Neuromarketing in education: How emotional content affects the perceived effectiveness of university videos. Central Asian Economic Review, 3(162), 106–121. https://doi.org/10.52821/2789-4401-2025-3-106-121
Beltrán-Valbuena, A. I. (2025). Análisis de la atención visual y respuesta emocional en infografías periodísticas mediante técnicas de neuromarketing. European Public & Social Innovation Review, 11, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2026-2166
Blanco Sánchez, T., & Moreno Albarracín, B. (2024). Estrategias de comunicación en Instagram: Un análisis comparativo entre universidades de élite. Contratexto, 42, 77–105. https://doi.org/10.26439/contratexto2024.n42.7033
Callejas-Albiñana, A. I., Callejas-Albiñana, F. E., & Martínez-Rodríguez, I. (2016). Emotional Effects on University Choice Behavior: The Influence of Experienced Narrators and Their Characteristics. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 689. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00689
Crespo-Tejero, N., Fernández-Lores, S., & Fernández-Hernández, R. (2023). Un estudio exploratorio con neurociencia: Impacto del género en la eficacia de una campaña de concienciación sanitaria. Index.comunicación, 13(2), 27–46. https://doi.org/10.33732/ixc/13/02Unestu
Damayanti, R. (2026). Application of neuroscience to university learning: implications for attention, emotional regulation and academic performance. Sophia Research Review, 3(2), 30-36. https://doi.org/10.64092/hx9q3e85
Gigante Pérez, C. (2013). Análisis de respuestas fisiológicas, emocionales y conductuales, ante el estímulo musical en una muestra de jóvenes universitarios [Tesis doctoral, Universidad Complutense de Madrid].
Guerrero-Pérez, E., Diego, P., Romano de Pedro, C., & Martín-Guerra, E. (2025). Neurociencia aplicada a la producción de series de ficción: Mejorar la calidad optimizando el engagement y los niveles de atención de la audiencia. Revista de Comunicación, 24(1), 265–280. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5894/589482288012/html/
Hsu, L., & Chen, Y.-J. (2020). The influence of emoji and subliminal messages on hotel selection: An EEG study. Australasian Marketing Journal, 28(4), 200–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.04.009
Jäger, D. T., & Rüsseler, J. (2016). Low arousing positive affect broadens visual attention and alters the thought-action repertoire while broadened visual attention does not. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 1652. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01652
Landmann, E. (2023). FaceReader in research: Recommendations and best practices for data collection, analysis, and reporting. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 197, Article 122889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122889
Pomaquero Yuquilema, M., Pomaquero Yuquilema, J. C., & López Aguirre, J. F. (2024). Atención visual y análisis de emociones del tráiler de Inside Out 2 mediante FaceReader. European Public & Social Innovation Review, 9, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2024-383
Rodas, J. A., & Montoya-Restrepo, L. A. (2019). Medición y análisis de anuncios publicitarios en televisión con base en las herramientas Seguidor-de-Visión y Lector-de-Rostro (EyeTracking y FaceReader). Información Tecnológica, 30(2), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07642019000200003
Rodríguez Baldeón, D. E., Nader, S., & Martínez Vivar, R. (2025). Neuromarketing techniques for software usability evaluation to understand motivations of behaviors: An integrated perspective. Revista Científica Mundo Recursivo, 8(2), 89–109. https://www.atlantic.edu.ec/ojs/index.php/mundor/article/view/333/364
Rodríguez-Martínez, G. (2024). El estudio de las emociones en el contexto del neuromarketing: Una aproximación práctica y conceptual. Brazilian Journal of Development, 10(4), e68692. https://doi.org/10.34117/bjdv10n4-014
Rojas-Valladares, A. L., Domínguez-Urdanivia, Y., & Lafita-Frómeta, R. (2026). Diversidad, neurodivergencia e inclusión educativa: Aproximaciones teóricas desde la educación contemporánea. Sophia Editions.
Šola, H. M., Qureshi, F. H., & Khawaja, S. (2024). Exploring the untapped potential of neuromarketing in online learning: Implications and challenges for the higher education sector in Europe. Behavioral Sciences, 14(2), Article 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14020080
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Francesca Liliana Balseca-Rodríguez, Paulette Amarillys Medranda-Zambrano, William Franklin Ortiz-Paredes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in Revista UGC agree to the following terms:
1. Copyright
Authors retain unrestricted copyright to their work. Authors grant the journal the right of first publication. To this end, they assign the journal non-exclusive exploitation rights (reproduction, distribution, public communication, and transformation). Authors may enter into additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal, provided that acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal is given.
© The authors.
2. License
The articles are published in the journal under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The terms can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en
This license allows:
- Sharing: Copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format.
- Adapting: Remixing, transforming, and building upon the material.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes were made. You may do this in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses or sponsors your use.
- NonCommercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
- ShareAlike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your creation under the same license as the original work.
There are no additional restrictions. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
