The Dictionary of Affect provides scores for individual words along the emotional dimensions of Evaluation and Activation. The emotional tone of headlines from three newspapers and titles from one psychology journal is described in terms of the two dimensions, and two possible definitions of sensationalism are proposed, one of which would classify titles in Psychological Reports as sensational.
References
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WhissellC.DewsonM.A Dictionary of Affect in Language: III. Analysis of two biblical and two secular passages. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1986, 62, 127–132.
2.
WhissellC.FournierM.PellandR.WeirD.MakarecK.A Dictionary of Affect in Language: IV. Reliability, validity and applications. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1986, 62, 875–888.
