Three semantic differential items assess where respondents locate a specified future event on a near-to-distant temporal continuum. The items range from an immediate now/later contrast to a broader today/over the year comparison and an explicit near/distant future framing. The scale was designed to verify the success of temporal framing manipulations in health communication research and operates as a state measure of subjective temporal distance.
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Originally developed by Chandran and Menon (2004) and used by Pounders, Lee, and Mackert (2015) as a manipulation check for temporal framing of health risk. Pounders et al. (2015) prompted participants with the stem 'The ad you viewed focused on the risk of heart disease...' after a health PSA, directing them to locate the event on each temporal scale. The scale stem or instructions must establish a reference event for participants before rating; the items themselves contain no explicit referent. Successful detection of temporal framing manipulations in both source studies provides evidence of predictive validity. The original Chandran and Menon (2004) usage yielded alpha = .89; Pounders et al. (2015) usage yielded alpha = .93.
Pounders, K. R., Lee, S., & Mackert, M. (2015). Matching temporal frame, self-view, and message frame valence: Improving persuasiveness in health communications. Journal of Advertising, 44(4), 388-402.
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