A three-item scale measuring the extent to which a person is in a state of emotional neutrality -- feeling indifferent and lacking any particular emotion at the time of assessment. Items are rated on a seven-point format with anchors of did not experience at all (1) and experienced very intensely (7). Cavanaugh, Bettman, and Luce (2015) used the scale as a manipulation check in the pretest for Study 4 (n = 147 college students), asking participants to indicate the extent to which they experienced particular feelings while watching an advertisement. The authors noted that items were drawn from the existing literature but did not identify the specific source. Internal consistency was good: alpha = .86. The successful manipulation provided limited evidence of the scale's predictive validity.
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Cavanaugh et al. (2015) did not explicitly identify the source of the scale, noting only that items were drawn from the literature. The response format asked participants to rate how intensely they experienced each feeling state; instructions were not stated explicitly in the article but the general context was emotional response to an advertisement. The scale was used as a manipulation check to confirm that a neutral induction produced lower positive emotion than a love induction; the successful result provides limited evidence of predictive validity. Researchers should note this scale captures absence of emotion rather than a positive or negative affective state and is suited to use as a baseline comparison condition rather than a primary outcome measure.
Cavanaugh, L. A., Bettman, J. R., & Luce, M. F. (2015). Feeling love and doing more for distant others: Specific positive emotions differentially affect prosocial consumption. Journal of Marketing Research, 52(5), 657–673.
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