To Partition or Not to Partition Evaluative Judgments Comparing Measures of Structural Ambivalence

Attitudinal ambivalence is one of the most widely studied structural properties in the attitudes literature. The current research compared two commonly used measures of structural ambivalence. Both measures separately assess the positive and negative components of ambivalence; however, one approach instructs participants to partition their oppositely valenced evaluative responses whereas the other does not. Using both experimental and nonexperimental designs, four studies revealed that the nonpartitioned measure was more sensitive to manipulations of attitudinal ambivalence (Studies 1 and 2) and was a better predictor of subjective ambivalence (Studies 1-4). Potential reasons for this distinction are discussed.