Feeling Thermometer Analysis

The feeling thermometer is a survey instrument that asks respondents to rate their warmth or favorability toward a person, group, or institution on a 0-to-100 scale, where 0 is very cold/unfavorable, 100 is very warm/favorable, and 50 is neutral. Introduced in the American National Election Studies in the 1960s, it is the standard measure of political affect, and its analysis underpins candidate evaluation, group affect, and affective-polarization research.