Attitude Toward the Tweet (Manipulative)

What it measures

A three-item scale measuring the degree to which a social media tweet is perceived as inappropriate, unfair, and manipulative. Items use single-word descriptors capturing the perceived ethical violations and coercive intent embedded in the tweet's communication strategy. Originally developed for research on persuasion knowledge and regulatory focus, the scale has been applied in social media marketing research to assess consumer perceptions of manipulative brand communication tactics.

Representative items

• inappropriate.
• unfair.
• manipulative.

Citation

Kirmani, Amna and Rui (Juliet) Zhu (2007). Vigilant against manipulation: The effect of regulatory focus on the use of persuasion knowledge. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(5), 688–701. [Applied to social media context by: Thomas, Veronica L. and Kendra Fowler (2021). Close encounters of the AI kind: Use of AI influencers as brand endorsers. Journal of Advertising, 50(1), 11–25.]