Negative Similarities

Abstract

Two experiments were carried out for the present investigation. The first experiment was an exact replication of an experiment by Ekman (1955), where the subjects had been requested to estimate positive similarity between pairs of emotional terms. The second experiment was carried out in the same way except that the subjects were also requested to give negative estimations when they considered that a pair of words described feelings which were opposite to each other. Using factor analysis it was found that the negative estimations obtained in the second experiment were represented as zero ratings in the first one. The second experiment also yielded some additional information which was considered to be psychologically meaningful. A reanalysis of Ekman's data (1955) gave almost exactly the same result as the first experiment in the present study.