Negative Emotions in Marketing Research: Affect or Artifact?

Abstract

How similar are positive and negative affect? Are happiness and unhappiness opposite ends of the same continuum? Empirical marketing research generally reports separate positive and negative self-report consumer emotions. Recent research in social psychology calls this distinction into question and reasserts the bipolarity of human emotions. Despite the recent interest in consumer emotions among marketing researchers, the marketing literature has not addressed the issue directly. Two studies n = 334 and n = 335 are reported that investigate this issue. The results suggest that positive and negative consumer emotions may sometimes, but not always, be distinct, and more importantly, suggest further studies. Additionally, evidence is presented that suggests that the respondent task may moderate correlations between positive and negative consumer emotions.