The Dimensionality of Consumption Emotion Patterns and Consumer Satisfaction

Although both consumption emotion and satisfaction judgments occur in the postpurchase period, little is known about their correspondence. This article investigates the interrelationships between the two constructs by way of taxonomic and dimensional analyses to identify patterns of emotional response to product experiences. Five discriminable patterns of affective experience were uncovered, which were based on three independent affective dimensions of hostility, pleasant surprise, and interest. The results extend prior findings of a simple bidimensional affective-response space and reveal that satisfaction measures vary in their ability to represent the affective content of consumption experiences. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.