Relationship Strength

What it measures

The scale measures how closely connected a respondent perceives two other people to be — how central each is to the other and how much they seem to care — using semantic-differential items. Originally developed to test whether consumers feel discomfort redeeming a coupon in front of an unfamiliar bystander, it captures perceived closeness between third parties rather than the respondent's own relationships.

Response format

7-point semantic differential

Scale items

• not at all central to / were very central to
• cared very little about / cared a lot about
• were not at all important to / were very important to

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

Usage notes & scoring

Reliability was validated across two studies, with alphas of .94 (Study 2) and .97 (Study 4) reported.

Citation

Argo, Jennifer J. and Kelley J. Main (2008), “Stigma by Association in Coupon Redemption: Looking Cheap Because of Others,” Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (4), 559-572.

Keywords