Event Title
Developing Evolutionary-Based Domain-Specific Loyalty Scales
Presentation Type
Oral and/or Visual Presentation
Presenter Major(s)
Psychology
Mentor Information
Robert Deaner, deanerr@gvsu.edu
Department
Psychology
Location
Kirkhof Center 2201
Start Date
13-4-2011 10:00 AM
End Date
13-4-2011 10:30 AM
Keywords
Social Science
Abstract
Loyalty has been researched in many areas, but little attention has been paid to whether loyalty is a unitary construct or differs across domains. We suggest that loyalty will differ across domains in accordance with the challenges our ancestors faced during their evolutionary history. We test this hypothesis by developing seven psychometric loyalty scales each putatively assessing a different domain and investigating whether there is significant individual variation across them. The proposed domains are loyalty to group, friend, romantic partner, kin, nation, sports team and brand. We found good internal consistency for all seven scales, and factor analysis indicated that the scales were distinct, supporting the hypothesis of distinct loyalty domains. This research illustrates the utility of an evolutionary perspective and should help future studies identify the contextual and dispositional factors contributing to loyalty.
Developing Evolutionary-Based Domain-Specific Loyalty Scales
Kirkhof Center 2201
Loyalty has been researched in many areas, but little attention has been paid to whether loyalty is a unitary construct or differs across domains. We suggest that loyalty will differ across domains in accordance with the challenges our ancestors faced during their evolutionary history. We test this hypothesis by developing seven psychometric loyalty scales each putatively assessing a different domain and investigating whether there is significant individual variation across them. The proposed domains are loyalty to group, friend, romantic partner, kin, nation, sports team and brand. We found good internal consistency for all seven scales, and factor analysis indicated that the scales were distinct, supporting the hypothesis of distinct loyalty domains. This research illustrates the utility of an evolutionary perspective and should help future studies identify the contextual and dispositional factors contributing to loyalty.