NEGATIVE EMOTIONS IN MARKETING-RESEARCH - AFFECT OR ARTIFACT

How similar are positive and negative affect? Are happiness and unhapp iness opposite ends of the same continuum? Empirical marketing researc h generally reports separate positive and negative self-report consume r emotions. Recent research in social psychology calls this distinctio n into question and reasserts the bipolarity of human emotions. Despit e the recent interest in consumer emotions among marketing researchers , the marketing literature has not addressed the issue directly. Two s tudies (n = 334 and n = 335) are reported that investigate this issue. The results suggest that positive and negative consumer emotions may sometimes, but not always, be distinct, and more importantly, suggest further studies. Additionally evidence is presented that suggests that the respondent task may moderate correlations between positive and ne gative consumer emotions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.