Expertise (Personal)

What it measures

Five items assess a person's self-reported familiarity, knowledge, clarity about key attributes, and frequency of use with a specified product category.

Response format

Response format not stated; likely 7-point

Scale items

• How familiar are you with __________?
• How clear an idea do you have about which characteristics are important in providing a good __________? [item may be truncated]
• I know a lot about __________.
• How would you rate your knowledge of __________ relative to other __________ users?
• How frequently do you use __________?

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

Usage notes & scoring

Adapted from Mitchell and Dacin (1996). Alphas .89–.93 across multiple studies. Blanks should be replaced with the product category. Item 4 appears truncated—verify full wording against original article.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Thompson, D. V., Hamilton, R. W., & Rust, R. T. (2005). Feature fatigue: When product capabilities become too much of a good thing. Journal of Marketing Research, 42(4), 431–442.

Keywords