Ethicality (ETHICAL)

1. Abstract

The Ethicality (ETHICAL) Scale, developed by R. Eric Reidenbach and Donald P. Robin in 1988, is a foundational psychometric instrument designed to capture evaluative moral judgments regarding professional, organizational, and marketing behaviors. Originating within the development of the broader Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES), the ETHICAL subscale operationalizes ethical evaluations through six bipolar adjective semantic differential items. These items measure an individual’s perception of whether a specific action, scenario, or business practice conforms to deeply internalized moral benchmarks established through cultural tradition, family socialization, and fundamental human values. Rather than treating ethical decision-making as a simple, unidimensional continuum of acceptable versus unacceptable conduct, the scale captures the nuanced cognitive calculus that individuals employ when interpreting complex ethical dilemmas.

The scale consists of six 7-point semantic differential bipolar adjective pairs anchored by oppositional descriptors, such as Ethical / Unethical, Fair / Unfair, Morally Right / Not Morally Right, and Acceptable / Unacceptable to My Family. These items reflect broad moral equity and culturally rooted deontological standards. Psychometrically, the instrument exhibits strong internal consistency across diverse empirical investigations, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients consistently ranging between .82 and .94. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses across multiple samples—including business practitioners, consumers, marketing researchers, and undergraduate business students—demonstrate a robust single-factor structure for this specific dimension, accounting for high proportions of total variance (typically between 55% and 72%). Construct, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validities have been empirically substantiated across multiple experimental and survey paradigms, demonstrating the scale’s utility in predicting whistleblowing intentions, behavioral compliance, purchase boycotts, and general moral reasoning across cross-cultural and corporate contexts.

2. Keywords

Ethicality Scale, Multidimensional Ethics Scale, moral equity, deontology, ethical decision-making, business ethics, marketing ethics, semantic differential, cognitive moral development, psychometrics

3. Authors

The Ethicality dimension was conceptualized and validated by R. Eric Reidenbach and Donald P. Robin.

• R. Eric Reidenbach, Ph.D.: At the time of the scale’s initial development, Dr. Reidenbach was Professor of Marketing and holder of the Phil B. Hardin Chair of Marketing in the College of Business Administration at the University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA). His research has focused on organizational ethics, healthcare marketing, customer value measurement, and moral philosophy applications in management.
• Donald P. Robin, D.B.A.: Dr. Robin served as Professor of Marketing at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA) and later as the Wachovia Professor of Business Ethics at Wake Forest University. His scholarly contributions pioneered the intersection of normative moral philosophy with empirical descriptive models of marketing ethics and corporate social responsibility.

4. Purpose

The primary purpose of the Ethicality (ETHICAL) Scale is to provide researchers, organizational psychologists, and corporate compliance officers with a reliable, valid, and philosophically grounded metric for quantifying individual moral evaluations of decision scenarios, actions, and policies. Before the work of Reidenbach and Robin in 1988, empirical inquiries into ethical decision-making in applied settings relied predominantly on ad hoc single-item Likert scales (e.g., asking respondents whether an action was simply “ethical” or “unethical”) or broad, unvalidated scales that conflated distinct philosophical dimensions. Such simplistic approaches failed to recognize that ethical evaluation is a complex cognitive process involving multi-layered justifications.

In applied research, the ETHICAL scale is widely utilized to assess consumer perceptions of controversial corporate initiatives, such as targeted advertising to vulnerable populations, dynamic surge pricing, deceptive packaging, environmental greenwashing, and predatory lending practices. By presenting respondents with realistic, standardized vignettes followed by the six bipolar adjective pairs, researchers can isolate the precise moral boundaries of stakeholder groups. Furthermore, the scale serves an important diagnostic function within corporate settings: it enables compliance officers, human resource directors, and organizational researchers to assess organizational ethical climate, measure employee reactions to corporate codes of conduct, and evaluate the efficacy of ethics training programs.

From a theoretical standpoint, the purpose of the scale is to bridge the long-standing divide between normative ethical philosophy and descriptive behavioral psychology. While normative ethics seeks to prescribe how moral agents ought to act (drawing on utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, justice theory, and relativism), descriptive psychometrics seeks to map how individuals actually conceptualize and judge behavior. The ETHICAL dimension specifically operationalizes what Reidenbach and Robin termed “Broad Moral Equity,” reflecting foundational cultural notions of fairness, justice, and family-instilled virtue. Its systematic application allows scholars to map how moral evaluations directly mediate the link between cognitive moral awareness and downstream behavioral intentions, including whistleblowing, product boycotting, or organizational citizenship behavior.

5. Psychological Construct

The psychological construct captured by the Ethicality (ETHICAL) Scale centers on moral equity and internalized normative evaluation. Rather than measuring knowledge of statutory regulations or adherence to explicit legal codes, ethicality reflects an individual’s affective and cognitive appraisal of whether a specific behavior corresponds to universal, cultural, and familial principles of right and wrong. In the psychometric taxonomy developed by Reidenbach and Robin, this construct encompasses three primary conceptual facets:

5.1. Moral Equity and Justice

The core of the construct resides in equity theory and classical distributive and procedural justice. An action is evaluated as ethical when it maintains equilibrium between parties, avoids exploitation, and respects mutual rights. For example, when evaluating a vignette in which a car salesman conceals a known mechanical defect from an unsuspecting buyer, the respondent’s judgment of “Unfair” and “Unjust” reflects a deep perception of violated reciprocity. The construct taps into intuitive perceptions of equity that develop early in moral socialization, where fairness is equated with the absence of arbitrary harm and deceptive advantage.

5.2. Family Upbringing and Socialized Moral Standards

A distinctive feature of the ETHICAL scale is its explicit integration of foundational social learning. The item Acceptable / Unacceptable to My Family operationalizes the internalization of primary group values. According to social cognitive theory, the earliest and most enduring moral schemas are acquired through familial modeling, direct reinforcement, and childhood socialization. When an adult evaluates a corporate decision, they frequently reference these deeply ingrained foundational heuristics—often asking subconsciously whether the conduct would elicit approval or shame within their primary family unit. This facet distinguishes the construct from cold, detached utilitarian calculations of aggregate net utility.

5.3. Cultural Tradition and Universal Morality

The construct also incorporates perceptions of broader cultural alignment. Actions are judged not in a vacuum, but against the backdrop of long-standing social traditions and universal moral prohibitions against dishonesty, betrayal, and intentional harm. When individuals designate an action as “Morally Right” or “Culturally Acceptable,” they draw upon shared societal meta-narratives that define acceptable human conduct. Thus, the psychological construct measured by the ETHICAL scale represents an integrative, multi-layered moral evaluation that harmonizes intuitive equity, internalized familial norms, and socio-cultural morality.

6. Theoretical Framework

The development of the Ethicality Scale is grounded in a synthesis of normative moral philosophy and cognitive moral psychology. Reidenbach and Robin constructed their psychometric model by drawing explicitly upon five distinct philosophical traditions, while integrating the cognitive-developmental perspectives of Lawrence Kohlberg and James Rest.

6.1. Philosophical Foundations

In their theoretical formulation, Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) examined five primary normative traditions:

• Deontology: Rooted in Kantian ethics, deontology asserts that actions possess inherent moral value independent of their outcomes. Moral agents are bound by duties and maxims (e.g., the categorical imperative) prohibiting deception, coercion, and betrayal. The items measuring “fairness,” “morality,” and “rightness” directly reflect deontological evaluations.
• Teleology and Utilitarianism: Formulated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, this perspective evaluates the morality of an act solely on the basis of its consequences, aiming for the greatest balance of good over harm. While the full Multidimensional Ethics Scale incorporates teleological items (e.g., efficiency, net utility), the ETHICAL subscale primarily captures the non-consequentialist constraints that limit pure utility maximization.
• Justice Theory: Drawing on Aristotle and modern formulations by John Rawls, justice theory emphasizes fairness, equal liberty, and the impartial distribution of burdens and benefits. The equity dimension of the scale directly translates Rawlsian principles of fairness into measurable cognitive appraisals.
• Relativism: Relativist philosophy suggests that ethical norms are defined by cultural consensus, societal traditions, and social contracts rather than universal eternal laws. The presence of items evaluating cultural and familial acceptance provides an empirical mechanism for capturing relativistic moral judgments.
• Virtue Ethics and Egoism: The framework also accounts for personal character and self-interest, though personal moral integrity is largely subsumed within broader moral equity.

6.2. Cognitive Moral Development and Rest's Four-Component Model

From a psychological standpoint, the scale fits cleanly into James Rest’s Four-Component Model of Morality, which posits that moral behavior is the outcome of four distinct sequential processes: (1) Moral Sensitivity (recognizing an ethical issue exists), (2) Moral Judgment (evaluating which action is morally right or wrong), (3) Moral Motivation/Intent (prioritizing moral values over personal or commercial interests), and (4) Moral Character/Action (executing the decision). The ETHICAL scale is explicitly designed to measure Component 2: Moral Judgment. It captures the evaluative cognitive response that occurs once an individual has identified a situation as possessing ethical significance, directly predicting subsequent behavioral intent.

7. Validity

The validity of the Ethicality (ETHICAL) Scale has been extensively evaluated across more than three decades of empirical research in consumer psychology, management, and marketing ethics.

7.1. Construct and Content Validity

Content validity was originally established through exhaustive literature reviews across moral philosophy, followed by expert panel evaluations. Reidenbach and Robin (1988) initially identified 33 candidate items representing diverse philosophical paradigms. Through successive rounds of cognitive pre-testing and expert evaluation by academic ethicists, redundant, vague, and conceptually confounded items were systematically eliminated, yielding the core set of bipolar adjectives representing the fundamental moral equity dimension.

7.2. Convergent Validity

Convergent validity has been established through substantial correlations with parallel instruments of moral evaluation and ethical orientation. Across numerous validation studies, scores on the ETHICAL scale demonstrate significant positive correlations with the Idealism subscale of Forsyth’s Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ; $r = .48$ to $.62, p < .001$), reflecting a shared theoretical core prioritizing universal human welfare and moral duty. Conversely, the scale demonstrates expected inverse correlations with Forsyth’s Relativism subscale ($r = -.31$ to $-.45, p < .01$), confirming that individuals scoring high on moral equity reject the premise that moral rules are entirely subjective and context-dependent.

7.3. Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity has been rigorously demonstrated by differentiating moral equity evaluations from distinct constructs such as perceived legal compliance, economic profitability, and perceived social desirability. In multi-trait multi-method (MTMM) matrices and structural equation modeling (SEM) comparisons, the average variance extracted (AVE) for the ETHICAL dimension consistently exceeds .60, satisfying the Fornell-Larcker criterion by substantially exceeding the squared inter-construct correlations with related dimensions such as contractualism, relativistic consensus, and personal utility.

7.4. Predictive and Criterion-Related Validity

The instrument exhibits robust predictive validity regarding behavioral intentions and ethical decision choices. In experimental vignette studies, scores on the ETHICAL scale strongly predict behavioral intent ($R^2$ values frequently range from .35 to .58). In a landmark study examining marketing managers’ responses to predatory sales practices, individuals rating scenarios low on the ETHICAL scale were significantly more likely to report intentions to refuse compliance, report misconduct internally, or engage in external whistleblowing ($p < .001$). Similarly, consumer research shows that low ethicality ratings on corporate practices directly predict consumer boycotting intentions, negative word-of-mouth, and brand abandonment.

8. Reliability

The Ethicality (ETHICAL) Scale demonstrates exceptionally high internal consistency and temporal stability across diverse participant populations, methodological designs, and cultural contexts.

8.1. Internal Consistency

Across empirical studies, the scale’s internal reliability, as quantified by Cronbach’s alpha ($lpha$), consistently exceeds conventional psychometric thresholds ($lpha ge .70$ or $.80$):

• In the original validation study by Reidenbach and Robin (1988), the internal consistency coefficient for the broad moral equity dimension ranged from $lpha = .87$ to $.92$ across three distinct marketing scenarios.
• In their follow-up cross-validation study (Reidenbach & Robin, 1990), which administered the instrument to larger cohorts of marketing practitioners and business executives, reliability estimates ranged between $lpha = .89$ and $.94$.
• Independent replications across diverse samples (e.g., Flory et al., 1992; Cohen et al., 1993; McMahon & Harvey, 2007) have confirmed composite reliabilities (CR) consistently exceeding $.88$, with average inter-item correlations ranging from $.55$ to $.78$.

8.2. Test-Retest Reliability and Temporal Stability

Test-retest reliability has been evaluated in longitudinal and repeated-measures settings with stability intervals ranging from two to four weeks. Under control conditions where no ethics training interventions occurred, test-retest correlation coefficients have remained robust ($r_{tt} = .78$ to $.86, p < .001$), demonstrating that while ethical evaluations are responsive to specific situational details presented in vignettes, an individual’s underlying evaluative metric remains stable over time.

9. Factor Analysis

The factorial structure of the Ethicality dimension within the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES) framework has undergone extensive exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

9.1. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

In the seminal 1988 and 1990 investigations, principal axis factoring with both varimax (orthogonal) and oblimin (oblique) rotations was performed on data generated across multiple ethical vignettes. Across diverse scenario contexts, the six items comprising the broad moral equity/ethicality construct loaded heavily onto a single, dominant first factor:

• Eigenvalues: The primary factor consistently yielded eigenvalues ranging between 3.4 and 4.8, accounting for 55% to 72% of the total explained variance across the full battery of items.
• Factor Loadings: Individual item loadings on this primary dimension were exceptionally high, typically exceeding .70, with primary loadings frequently clustering between .76 and .91 (e.g., Fair/Unfair loading at .88; Ethical/Unethical loading at .91; Morally Right/Not Morally Right loading at .86). Cross-loadings onto secondary factors (such as relativistic consensus or contractualism) rarely exceeded .25.

9.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Fit

Subsequent psychometric examinations using structural equation modeling have rigorously confirmed the unidimensionality of this subscale. Standard goodness-of-fit statistics across independent datasets confirm excellent model fit:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): Values routinely exceed .95 to .98, indicating superior structural fidelity compared to baseline null models.
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): Consistently reported between .94 and .97.
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): Values typically range from .038 to .062, with 90% confidence intervals well within the accepted standards for excellent fit ($le .06$).
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): Observed values consistently register below .04.

Multigroup invariance testing has further established that the factor loadings, item intercepts, and residual variances remain invariant across gender, academic background, and professional status, confirming that the scale assesses the exact same psychological construct across heterogeneous respondent pools.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The Ethicality (ETHICAL) Scale is administered as a self-report semantic differential instrument, typically paired with one or more decision-making vignettes or situational descriptions.

• Test Type: Psychometric rating scale / Semantic differential questionnaire.
• Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil, computer-based survey, or online experimental testing platform; self-administered individually.
• Item Count: 6 bipolar adjective pairs.
• Administration Time: Approximately 1 to 2 minutes per scenario or stimulus evaluated.
• Response Format: 7-point bipolar semantic differential scale (ranging from 1 to 7), with oppositional descriptors placed at opposite poles.
• Scoring Rules:
  • Each item is scored from 1 (representing the most negative or unethical pole) to 7 (representing the most positive or ethical pole).
  • Reverse-worded items must be recoded prior to scoring so that higher numerical values consistently denote greater perceived ethicality, fairness, and moral acceptability.
  • An overall Composite Ethicality Score is calculated by summing the scores of the 6 items (theoretical range: 6 to 42) or by computing the unweighted arithmetic mean across all six items (theoretical range: 1.00 to 7.00).
  • Mean scores below 4.00 indicate perceived unacceptability/unethicality; a score of 4.00 represents a neutral moral stance; and mean scores above 4.00 indicate that the stimulus is perceived as ethical, just, and fair.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Publication Year: The scale was originally published in 1988 in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, with refined validation published in 1990.

Copyright and Usage Permissions: The instrument was introduced within scholarly literature authored by R. Eric Reidenbach and Donald P. Robin. In accordance with standard academic conventions, the instrument may be utilized free of financial charge by academic researchers, educators, and university students for non-commercial scientific research, instructional purposes, and scholarly theses/dissertations, provided appropriate bibliographic citation is accorded to the original authors and journal publications. Commercial use, proprietary organizational consulting applications, or inclusion in commercial testing software platforms may require formal permission from the original copyright holders or journal publishers (Springer / Academy of Marketing Science).

12. References

Cohen, J. R., Pant, L. W., & Sharp, D. J. (1993). A validation and extension of a multidimensional ethics measure. Journal of Business Ethics, 12(1), 13–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01845782

Flory, S. M., Phillips, T. J., Reidenbach, R. E., & Robin, D. P. (1992). A multidimensional analysis of selected ethical issues in accounting. The Accounting Review, 67(2), 284–302. https://www.jstor.org/stable/247738

Forsyth, D. R. (1980). A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(1), 175–184. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.39.1.175

Kohlberg, L. (1981). The Philosophy of Moral Development: Moral Stages and the Idea of Justice. Harper & Row.

McMahon, J. M., & Harvey, R. J. (2007). Additional evidence for the validity of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale. Journal of Business Ethics, 75(4), 335–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9257-5

Reidenbach, R. E., & Robin, D. P. (1988). Some initial steps toward improving the measurement of ethical evaluations of marketing activities. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 16(2), 871–890. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02723327

Reidenbach, R. E., & Robin, D. P. (1990). Toward the development of a multidimensional scale for improving evaluations of business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 9(8), 639–653. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00383391

Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory. Praeger.

13. Items of the Scale