Measurement of Attitudes

Attitudes toward other individuals, groups of individuals, social issues, candidates, brands, health behaviors, messages, and more have been measured in a number of empirical ways across communication subdisciplines. While explicitly asking how positive or negative a respondent feels toward an attitude object remains a norm in communication research, newer implicit, or indirect measurements have been imported from research in social psychology. Common explicit and implicit measures used in media processing and effects, media entertainment, health communication, advertising, political communication, and interpersonal/group communication are discussed.