Moral Identity via Charitable Donations

What it measures

The scale measures how much a person's charitable giving is tied to their sense of being a moral person — whether donating helps them reach their moral ideals, feel more virtuous, or feel that giving is central to who they are. Items were developed to test how moral identity shapes marketplace donation behavior, including differences by gender.

Response format

5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree)

Scale items

• Making a charitable donation helps me reach my moral ideals.
• Making a charitable donation makes me feel more moral.
• Making a charitable donation is an important part of what it means to be a moral person for me.
• Making a charitable donation is central to my sense of being a moral person.
• Making a charitable donation is a reflection of me becoming more moral.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Source not stated by Shang et al. (2020), who appear to have created the scale themselves; used with MTurk participants. Reliability was strong (α = .94). Validity information wasn't provided.

Citation

Shang, J., Reed, A., Sargeant, A., & Carpenter, K. (2020). Marketplace Donations: The Role of Moral Identity Discrepancy and Gender. Journal of Marketing Research, 57(2), 375–393.

Keywords