Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show how consumer researchers have used experimental design of ideas to understand emotions. Design/methodology/approach - The approach was "quali-quant," mixing the insights of qualitative research with the numerical rigor of quantitative research. Consumers were presented with small, easy to understand test concepts created by experimental design to obtain their reactions. The paper looks at the impact of emotion-language on acceptance, through individual-level regression modeling. Findings - Models were developed for each respondent. It was found that the emotion elements are not key drivers of interest in the product. The paper did, however, find individuals who were sensitive to some emotion elements, but not to others, leading to the conclusion that responses to emotion in concepts may emerge out of the interaction of individual respondents and the concept elements. Research limitations/implications - The key limitation of this type of research is that it requires a specific internet-based program (IdeaMap.Net) which does all the combinations, acquires the data, and then analyzes it. Practical implications - The paper shows how to better understand the role of emotions in written concepts. Originality/value - The paper presents a totally new treatment of emotion, by looking at emotion in terms of the stimulus and the respondent together. It shows that emotion is an emergent or new entity, not inherent in the predisposition of a group of individuals, nor in the nature of the stimulus.