The Measure and Mismeasure of Emotion

Abstract

Emotion, after a modest hiatus during the “cognitive revolution,” has reemerged of late to become a subject of significant attention in political science.¹ The other contributions in this volume give ample evidence of the added understanding we gain by including emotion into the theoretical and empirical mix. Our entry in this volume turns to a question relevant to most if not all the other research found here: how do we best measure emotional response? We examine two central considerations—identifying which emotions define political responses and determining which kinds of questions are most suitable to assess these emotional reactions. Evaluating the measurement of emotion is important both because of the inherent challenges in securing reliable and valid measures of emotional reactions, as well as the sensitivity of our understanding of emotional reactions to our choice of measures.²