Starting from 1957, with the seminal book of Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum's ‘Measurement of Meaning', the semantic differential rapidly developed as a complex and subtle research instrument used for measuring social sentiments and attitudes with profound consequences for the social sciences...

Comparing self-assessed indicators of subjective outcomes such as health, work disability, political efficacy, job satisfaction, etc. across countries or socio-economic groups is often hampered by the fact that different groups use systematically different response scales. Anchoring vignettes...