Donation Control (Time)

What it measures

This scale measures how much control a person believes they would have over how their donated time (or, in a comparison condition, money) would be used by a charitable cause. Costello and Malkoc (2022) used it across four studies examining why donors are more generous with time than money, drawing ideas from prior work on personal control and compensatory control.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• I would have control over the way my time would be used.
• I would have the ability to shape how my time would be utilized.
• I would be involved in how my time would be used.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Alphas ranged from .92 to .94 across the four studies (Costello and Malkoc 2022, pp. 681-683, 689). Validity was not separately discussed. Depending on condition, participants read a stem about either volunteering time or donating money to a specified cause; the wording shown here reflects the time-donation framing (Web Appendix A).

Citation

Costello, John P. and Selin A. Malkoc (2022), "Why Are Donors More Generous with Time Than Money? The Role of Perceived Control over Donations on Charitable Giving," Journal of Consumer Research, 49 (4), 678–696.

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