Connection with the Individual

1. Abstract

The Connection with the Individual scale is a concise, tri-item psychometric instrument developed and validated by Bingqing (Miranda) Yin and Yexin Jessica Li (2023) to assess subjective interpersonal closeness, relational resonance, and psychological bonding between an observer and a target individual. Originally introduced in experimental consumer psychology and prosocial marketing research, the instrument addresses critical mechanisms within prosocial behavior, specifically examining how charitable appeals mitigate intergroup bias when encouraging support for out-group recipients. Operating on an authentic 7-point Likert response scale anchored from 1 (“Not at all”) to 7 (“Very much”), the instrument quantifies the degree to which an individual perceives a shared human affinity and relational connection with another specific person. Psychometrically, the scale demonstrates exceptional unidimensionality, internal consistency reliability (typically yielding Cronbach’s α coefficients exceeding .90), and robust construct validity. By capturing perceived relational bonding rather than abstract ideological sympathy, the scale serves as an indispensable tool for researchers investigating social identity dynamics, intergroup empathy, donor psychology, advertising effectiveness, and interpersonal relationship formation.

2. Keywords

Interpersonal connection, psychological closeness, perceived bonding, charitable appeals, in-group bias, out-group empathy, prosocial behavior, donor decision-making, consumer psychology, social identification, relational resonance, psychometrics.

3. Authors

The scale was developed and operationalized by Bingqing (Miranda) Yin and Yexin Jessica Li in their empirical investigation into donor behavior and charitable communication strategies.

• Bingqing (Miranda) Yin, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor of Marketing, School of Business, University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas, USA). Her research focuses on consumer behavior, prosocial decision-making, digital marketing, and non-profit advertising strategy.
• Yexin Jessica Li, Ph.D.: Associate Professor of Marketing, School of Business, University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas, USA). Her scholarship investigates evolutionary psychology in consumer choices, intergroup dynamics, social hierarchy, and charitable giving.

4. Purpose

The primary purpose of the Connection with the Individual scale is to quantify an observer’s felt relatedness, relational affinity, and interpersonal bond toward a designated focal individual. In psychological, social, and marketing research, scholars frequently encounter situations where individuals exhibit profound resistance to helping or empathizing with targets who belong to social, geographic, or ethnic out-groups. The scale was engineered to evaluate interventions designed to dissolve intergroup barriers by humanizing the individual recipient and establishing an immediate, subjective bridge between benefactor and beneficiary.

From an applied perspective, the instrument fulfills multiple empirical functions:

• Evaluating Charitable Campaigns: Charitable organizations continually struggle with donor fatigue and selective altruism, wherein donors disproportionately favor beneficiaries who share their demographic, national, or cultural identities. This scale measures whether specific framing mechanisms (such as benefactor-focused versus recipient-focused narratives) successfully cultivate perceived bonding with an out-group recipient.
• Experimental Social Psychology: The measure acts as a key mediator in experiments assessing interventions designed to reduce prejudice, promote perspective-taking, and cultivate interpersonal empathy across social divides.
• Advertising and Persuasion Metrics: Outside of charitable frameworks, commercial advertisers and organizational communicators utilize the instrument to determine how strongly consumers resonate with brand spokespersons, real-life testimonials, or narrative protagonists.
• Interpersonal Relationship Research: The scale offers a rapid, low-burden assessment of perceived rapport in dyadic encounters, virtual interactions, human-agent interfaces, and peer mentoring dyads.

5. Psychological Construct

The construct captured by this scale is perceived interpersonal connection, defined as a subjective state of relational resonance wherein one person experiences a psychological bridge, mutual identification, and emotional bond with another individual. Rather than assessing cognitive evaluation (e.g., perceived competence, physical attractiveness, or moral worth), the construct isolates experiential closeness—the feeling that the other person is not an alienated or distant entity, but someone with whom the self is linked.

The construct encompasses three mutually reinforcing facets:

• Perceived Connectedness: An overarching sense of link and structural relatedness between self and other, reflecting the dissolution of psychological distance. For instance, an individual reading a personal story about a disaster survivor feels that their human experiences intersect, reducing feelings of detachment.
• Relatability: The cognitive and experiential perception that the target’s emotions, values, life circumstances, or reactions are understandable and shared. An observer scoring high on relatability recognizes elements of their own subjective reality reflected in the target’s narrative.
• Psychological Bond: The affective glue that attaches the observer to the target, characterized by warmth, concern, and felt affinity. Unlike general positive affect, bonding requires an interpersonal target; it represents the subjective foundation of social cohesion and altruistic motivation.

Importantly, the construct differs from broader group-level identification. While social identification refers to categorization into a shared collective category (e.g., nationality, religious group, university affiliation), connection with the individual reflects an individuated, personalized link that can transcend categorical boundaries. Yin and Li (2023) demonstrated that when appeals induce high individual-level connection, the negative dampening effect of out-group status on giving is substantially attenuated.

6. Theoretical Framework

The Connection with the Individual scale is theoretically grounded in the convergence of several major paradigms across social psychology and consumer behavior:

Social Identity and Intergroup Bias

According to Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and Self-Categorization Theory (Turner et al., 1987), individuals partition the social environment into in-groups (“us”) and out-groups (“them”). This categorization routinely triggers preferential allocation of resources, positive affect, and heightened empathy toward in-group members, while evoking indifference or hostility toward out-group members. Yin and Li (2023) posited that inducing a strong, personalized connection with a specific out-group individual shifts cognition from categorical depersonalization to personal differentiation, overcoming default in-group favoritism.

Inclusion of Other in the Self

The conceptual structure of this instrument aligns with the self-expansion model and the principle of Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) pioneered by Aron, Aron, and Smollan (1992). In this framework, close interpersonal relationships are characterized by the psychological merging of self and other, such that the target’s needs, resources, and perspectives are treated as extensions of the self. While the single-item pictorial IOS scale measures overlapping circles, the Yin and Li (2023) measure provides a direct psychometric articulation of this merged phenomenological state through standardized verbal statements.

The Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

Under Batson’s (1991, 2011) Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis, experiencing empathetic concern for a target in distress evokes an altruistic motivation to alleviate that distress. However, empathy rarely occurs in a psychological vacuum; it requires an antecedent sense of connection or similarity. By establishing perceived bonding, charitable appeals activate empathic concern, which in turn drives concrete financial giving.

7. Validity

The validity of the Connection with the Individual scale has been established through experimental investigations examining prosocial resource allocation across divergent demographic and social contexts (Yin & Li, 2023).

Construct and Convergent Validity

Construct validity is substantiated by high inter-item correlations (typically ranging from .78 to .89), indicating that the three items reliably tap into the identical latent dimension of interpersonal closeness. Convergent validity is evidenced by strong positive correlations with established measures of:

• Empathetic concern and perspective-taking (Davis, 1983).
• The Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) single-item scale (Aron et al., 1992).
• Perceived similarity and common humanity metrics.

Discriminant Validity

Confirmatory factor analyses and correlation matrices confirm that the scale is empirically distinguishable from related but distinct psychological constructs:

• General Positive Affect: Connection with the individual correlates moderately with positive mood but maintains distinct variance, proving that relational bonding is not merely an artifact of general valence.
• Attitude toward the Advertisement / Organization: Factor models demonstrate that ratings of the beneficiary individual load independently from attitudes toward the sponsoring charitable entity or campaign execution.
• Categorical In-Group Identification: The scale discriminates between liking an entire social category and forming a personalized bond with an individual member.

Predictive and Criterion Validity

The scale possesses remarkable predictive utility. In the studies reported by Yin and Li (2023), perceived connection with the individual mediated the interactive effect of appeal focus (benefactor vs. recipient) and recipient identity on actual monetary donations and donation intentions. Participants reporting higher scores on the connection index allocated significantly greater financial contributions to out-group targets, demonstrating that felt connection directly predicts sacrificial prosocial action.

8. Reliability

Across multiple independent experimental samples, the Connection with the Individual scale demonstrates exemplary internal consistency reliability:

• Internal Consistency: In the primary empirical studies reported by Yin and Li (2023), Cronbach’s alpha (α) values consistently exceeded .90 (frequently registering between .92 and .95), well above the standard scientific threshold of .70 or .80 for psychometric measures.
• Composite Reliability: McDonald’s omega (ω) coefficients parallel the high alpha levels, indicating that the latent construct accounts for the overwhelming majority of variance observed across the item indicators.
• Split-Half and Inter-Item Reliability: The average inter-item correlation exceeds .75, indicating homogeneous item content without introducing excessive semantic redundancy.
• Reliability Across Subgroups: The scale maintains robust internal reliability regardless of respondent gender, ethnicity, or target group characteristics, demonstrating structural stability across diverse experimental conditions.

9. Factor Analysis

Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses validate the singular, unifactorial structure of the 3-item measure.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

When subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) or maximum likelihood factor analysis:

• A single factor consistently emerges with an eigenvalue substantially greater than 1 (typical initial eigenvalues > 2.50).
• The solitary extracted factor explains between 82% and 90% of the total variance across the item pool.
• Scree plot examinations exhibit a sharp precipice after the first factor, with no secondary factors satisfying the Kaiser criterion.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

Structural evaluations using structural equation modeling (SEM) confirm that a one-factor latent model fits the empirical data exceptionally well:

• Standardized Factor Loadings (λ): All three items load robustly onto the primary latent dimension, with standardized coefficients uniformly exceeding .85 (ranging from .88 to .96, p < .001).
• Goodness-of-Fit Indices: In just-identified or constrained multi-group models, fit indices conform to standard criteria: Comparative Fit Index (CFI) > .99, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) > .98, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) < .05, and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) < .02.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Connection with the Individual
• Alternative Designations: Perceived Relational Closeness Index, Recipient Connection Scale
• Original Authors: Bingqing (Miranda) Yin and Yexin Jessica Li (2023)
• Construct Measured: Perceived interpersonal connection, relatedness, and bonding with a focal individual
• Number of Items: 3 items
• Administration Format: Self-administered questionnaire (paper-and-pencil, computer-assisted, or online survey)
• Administration Time: Less than 1 minute (approximately 30 to 45 seconds)
• Response Scale: 7-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much)
• Target Population: Adults and adolescents participating in social, behavioral, psychological, and marketing research
• Scoring Protocol: Calculate the arithmetic mean of all three items to create a unified composite score ranging from 1.00 to 7.00.
• Reverse-Coded Items: None. All three items are positively worded.
• Score Interpretation: Higher scores reflect greater perceived psychological closeness, relatedness, and interpersonal bonding with the focal individual.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was formally published in 2023 in the Journal of Advertising. As an academic psychometric measure published within peer-reviewed scientific literature, the instrument is accessible for scholarly, non-commercial, and educational research purposes under fair use doctrine, provided appropriate academic attribution and citation are given to the original authors (Yin & Li, 2023).

Commercial practitioners, marketing agencies, and for-profit entities seeking to integrate the scale into proprietary commercial diagnostics or consulting instruments should consult the authors and the journal publisher (Taylor & Francis) to ensure adherence to intellectual property regulations.

12. References

• Aron, A., Aron, E. N., & Smollan, D. (1992). Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(4), 596–612. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.4.596
• Batson, C. D. (1991). The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Batson, C. D. (2011). Altruism in Humans. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341065.001.0001
• Davis, M. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113
• Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 33–47). Brooks/Cole.
• Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory. Basil Blackwell.
• Yin, B., & Li, Y. J. (2023). Benefactor- versus recipient-focused charitable appeals: How to leverage in-group bias to promote donations for out-group recipients. Journal of Advertising, 52(5), 739–755. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2022.2114777

13. Items of the Scale