Assessing the existence of a semantic space to express action tendencies

Abstract

There is an abundance of literature showing that action tendencies measure can help in improving prediction of people final behaviour in different fields. Applying action tendencies in combination with differential semantics could be useful in understanding the relationship between product design and people final decision making. In this regard, a questionnaire including a reduced set of action tendencies would be desirable. The present research applies differential semantics to assess the existence of a semantic space of action tendencies people use to express their intention to react. One hundred volunteers reported to which extent 19 images prompted them to react in 37 different ways. They also selected the emotion and meaning they most associated to each image. Results show that there exists a semantic space with 11 axis people use to express their intention to react. The semantic space is little sensitive to the sample of people in the experiment. The observed relationship of semantic axes with emotions and meanings, and the comparison of the resulted axis with previous literature, evidence that they correspond to action tendencies.