Perceived Object Playfulness

What it measures

Assesses whether a person found an activity or information source fun, enjoyable, and worth exploring. Items 1 and 2 evaluate the object or activity itself; items 3 and 4 capture the respondent's internal affective and exploratory states during the experience. This inconsistency in referent is a noted face validity concern. Developed by extracting key terms from a 9-item playfulness scale by Moon and Kim (2001). CFA confirmed convergent and discriminant validity across two studies, with AVEs of .77 and .76.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• The _____ was fun.
• The _____ was enjoyable.
• I was happy.
• I was explorative.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Items 1–2 assess the object/activity (use blank for activity name); items 3–4 assess respondent affect — a face validity inconsistency . AVEs: .77 (Study 5) and .76 (Study 6). Drawn from keyword extraction from Moon & Kim (2001).

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Müller-Stewens, J., Schlager, T., Häubl, G., & Herrmann, A. (2017). Gamified information presentation and consumer adoption of product innovations. Journal of Marketing, 81(2), 8–24.

Keywords