Single versus multiple measurement of attitudes: a meta-analysis of advertising studies validates the single-item measure approach

Academic researchers tend to use multiple items to measure a construct reliably, whereas practitioners tend to use single-item measures. But when constructs such as brand attitude, attitude toward the advertisement, and attitude toward behaviors are double concrete—with a clear, singular meaning in which the object being rated also is clear and singularly identifiable—a single-item measure suffices (Rossiter, 2011). Using the results of 189 advertising studies, the authors found no difference in effect sizes when the double-concrete dependent variables were measured with single or multiple items—which means data collection is more efficient and less tedious. That is good news for advertising researchers in an era of ever-decreasing response rates and attention spans of respondents.