Communal Motive Attributions

What it measures

Five items assess the degree to which a company's helping behaviour is attributed to genuine altruistic intent rather than self-serving motives. Gershon and Cryder (2018) referred to the construct as communality or communal intent and used the scale across multiple studies. Items are a mix of genuinely prosocial descriptors and two reverse-scored self-interest items.

Response format

7-point (anchors not specified in source)

Scale items

• The company did not expect to receive any benefits from helping.
• The company helped to respond to others' needs.
• The company has a genuine desire to help others.
• The company helped with hopes of benefiting themselves. (r)
• The company helped in order to get ahead. (r)

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Items 4 and 5 are reverse-scored. Factor analyses across studies showed these two items sometimes failed to load with items 1–3; researchers should give strong consideration to excluding them and checking the original article for guidance. If retained, the scale measures communal intent; items 4 and 5 alone could alternatively measure exchange (self-interested) motives. The blank in the stem should be filled with the entity name.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Gershon, R., & Cryder, C. (2018). Goods donations increase charitable credit for low-warmth donors. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(2), 451–469.

Keywords