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1985). In other words, these mood states are generally different from other affective factors that
are relatively stable and long-lasting (Westbrook, 1980). Consumption emotions are usually
described as having less transient and having more intensity, psychological urgency,
motivational potency, and situational specificity than mood (Clark & Isen, 1982; Oliver, 1997;
Westbrook & Oliver, 1991).
Consumption emotion and affect also can be differentiated. Oliver (1997) described
affect as “the feeling side of consciousness, as opposed to thinking, which taps the cognitive
domain” (p. 294). In her definition, feeling involves pleasure/displeasure, liking/disliking, and
happiness/sadness, and the psychological/visceral sensations brought on by the neural-hormonal
bodily systems (e.g., ecstasy). This affect is less cognitively involved than emotional responses
(Oliver, 1997). For example, surprise, an emotion, is a fleeting sense of interruption of ongoing
thought (Izard, 1977). However, since emotional responses include various forms of affect, the
distinctions between consumption emotion and affect have become unclear. As an example,
surprise, an emotional state, is commonly described as an affective state and included within a
list of affects in numerous fields (Oliver, 1997). Specifically, lists of affects include
consumption emotions, and lists of consumption emotions often include affect. In this regard,
the terms, affect and emotion elicited specifically during product usage or consumption
experiences, are frequently used interchangeably.
Review of Existing Measures of Emotional Responses
A considerable number of studies in psychology and marketing have proposed measures
of customer emotions (e.g., Edell & Burke, 1987; Holbrook & Batra, 1987; Izard, 1977;
Meharabian & Russell, 1974; Richins, 1997; Oh, 2005; Plutchik & Kellerman, 1974; Plutchik,
1980). Table 2.1 represents a summary of the emotion measures proposed in previous research.
Plutchik and Kellerman (1974) developed the Emotions Profile Index (EPI) based on
evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology includes the notion that emotions are forms
of communication signal that have adaptive or survival value, and the idea that there are certain
basic/primary emotions that may interact to produce the huge varieties seen in social encounters
(Plutchik, 2003). The EPI provides measures of eight basic emotions first postulated by Plutchik
(1958), namely fear, anger, joy, sadness, acceptance, disgust, surprise, and expectancy. The EPI,
which is also called a forced-choice test, contains a total of 62 emotion descriptor pairs (e.g.,
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