Abstract
M. Comm.
This study was experimental, with a focus on investigating the impact of consumer’s
embodied orientational metaphors on the reliability of questionnaires measuring
consumers’ affect. The design of questionnaires used to measure affect in consumer
and marketing research tends to disregard the physical foundation of the attitudes of
consumers and may therefore be regarded as disembodied. The objective of the
study was therefore to determine the impact of the correspondence between the
embodied spatial orientation of participants and the spatial positioning of items on
the reliability of a questionnaire measuring consumers’ affect. An experimental
research design and quantitative research approach was utilised to achieve the
research objective. A sample of 1 825 participants completed an online
questionnaire. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six layouts of the
questionnaire. Each item in the questionnaire consisted of a continuum with two
bipolar adjectives. The items were the same for each layout but the positioning of the
adjectives in each item was different for every layout. The results indicated that the
reliability of a questionnaire measuring affect may be higher when there is
congruence between the spatial orientation of participants and the spatial positioning
of items.