Hateful Emotional Responses Scale (HatERS): Development and Initial Evaluation

Abstract

The present investigation consists of two studies designed to provide a preliminary examination of a new scale for measuring hateful emotional responses to being hurt by an offender. Study 1 involved definition of hateful emotional responses, item development, analysis of internal consistency, and convergent and incremental validity. The scale was evaluated in a sample of 33 young (M = 26) college and community adults. A five-item hateful emotional responses scale was developed and psychometric properties of the scale were encouraging. Study 2 involved using the five-item scale developed and evaluated in Study 1 and examining factorial validity and sensitivity to change in hate as a result of attending a lecture on hate reduction. Results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the scale had acceptable unidimensional factor structure and standardized loadings were all statistically significant and moderate to large in magnitude. The scale also showed expected sensitivity to change. Study 2 participants were 47 middle-aged (M = 50) churchgoers. These initial results suggest that the scale may hold promise for further development in samples of broader, larger, and more varied individuals, communities, and nations.

Exhibiting emotional flexibility to alleviate employee hateful emotions and elevate their justice perceptions

“…Hateful emotional response. This construct was measured using a five-item hateful emotional response scale (Toussaint et al, 2020). Employee's hateful emotional responses were measured on two occasions: under the condition of representing the manager with high emotional flexibility (T 3 ) and under the condition of representing the manager with low emotional flexibility (T 3 ).…”

“…Managers' emotional flexibility and employees' hateful emotional response Hatred is a deep-seated emotional response to an offender's hurt, e.g. the manager delivering negative feedback in a performance review meeting (Toussaint et al, 2020). An employee may feel hatred when wronged by a superior.…”