Expectation Disconfirmation

What it measures

Items measure the degree to which a consumer's experience with a product, service, or salesperson fell short of, met, or exceeded prior expectations, anchored at each pole of the disconfirmation continuum.

Response format

Varies; typically 7-point semantic differential or Likert

Scale items

• The problems you have encountered have been: [much worse than expected / much better than expected]
• The benefits you have experienced have been: [much worse than expected / much better than expected]
• Overall, the experience was: [much worse than expected / much better than expected]

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

The 3-item version (based on Oliver 1980) is most commonly used. The handbook entry contains 14 extracted items from multiple versions and application contexts (cars, salespeople, dealers) — only the core 3 are listed here; researchers should select items appropriate to their context and verify wording against the specific source study. Alpha .84 (Westbrook 1987).

Citation

Oliver, R. L. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 17(4), 460–469.

Keywords