[PAPER] PrePrint: Ambivalence, the Person and the Attitude Object: Individual Differences in the Experience of Mixed Feelings
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Ambivalence, or holding positive and negative evaluations about a single topic, has mostly been studied as a response to specific attitude objects – such as societal issues, personal relationships, or diet. This approach has been fruitful for understanding the structure and consequences of mixed feelings but neglects differences between individuals. The idea of a chronically ambivalent individual is not as intuitive as that of an ambivalence inducing topic - however, prior findings hint at such individual differences. Using mixed models, we identify separate individual and stimulus effects in reported ambivalence ratings. Across two datasets where individuals (ns = 41; 111) rate multiple stimuli (DS1=29; DS2=61), we find that individual differences account for 16-28% of variability – more than the differences between stimuli. Furthermore, we document substantial individual differences in the relationships between different aspects of ambivalence. Ambivalence is as much a product of the individual as it is of the attitude object.