Three bipolar semantic differential items assess the degree to which a person feels special, unique, and high in status at a given moment. The scale was developed to capture the subjective experience of social elevation that emerges when consumers receive preferential treatment, making it a state-level measure of felt status rather than a stable trait-level perception of rank or superiority. Importantly, the construct captures a sense of distinctiveness and momentary privilege rather than arrogance or dominance over others.
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Items were adapted from a superiority measure used by Dreze and Nunes (2009), but the authors deliberately re-oriented the construct toward specialness and uniqueness rather than superiority, acknowledging that the scale captures a positive sense of social distinctiveness rather than an explicit belief in being better than others. The scale uses a 9-point bipolar format with items phrased as questions (e.g., 'How special did you feel?') -- a format that diverges from typical Likert-type phrasing and should be reproduced as-is to preserve the original response structure. Formal validity analysis was not reported; a factor analysis in Study 4 confirmed items loaded on the appropriate factor alongside three companion scales.
McFerran, B., & Argo, J. J. (2014). The entourage effect. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(5), 871-884.
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