Identification with all humanity—A test of the factorial structure and measurement invariance of the scale in five countries

Abstract

Identification with all humanity measured as an individual characteristic is an important factor related to social and international relations, such as concern for global issues and human rights, prosocial attitudes, intergroup forgiveness, attitudes toward immigrants, solving global problems, reactions to hate crimes and dehumanisation. We examine the factorial structure, psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Identification with All Humanity (IWAH) scale in student samples from five countries (the United States, Poland, France, Mexico and Chile; N = 1930). Separate confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) for each country showed a second‐order model of one superordinate factor with two subfactors. The cross‐country validation of the scale, based on multigroup CFA, confirmed configural and metric invariance between countries for raw scores, and full metric invariance for “pure” scores. This study showed that the IWAH scale can be successfully used for cross‐country research and the results from different countries can be compared and integrated.

Global Human Identification and Citizenship: A Review of Psychological Studies

“…In structural model tests on U.S. samples, RWA and SDO each predict ethnocentrism, which in turn predicts lower IWAH scores (McFarland, ). Cross‐cultural research by Hamer and her colleagues in the United States, Poland, Chile, and Mexico has replicated these associations and the structural model (Hamer, McFarland, Penczek, et al, in preparation). Correlations with Davis’s () measure of empathic concern (“I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me”) range into the .50 s, while those with his perspective‐taking measure (“I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a decision”) are usually in the .30 s (McFarland, ).…”

“…Correlations with Davis’s () measure of empathic concern (“I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me”) range into the .50 s, while those with his perspective‐taking measure (“I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a decision”) are usually in the .30 s (McFarland, ). Correlations with Rest, Narvaez, Thoma, and Bebeau’s () Defining Issue Test, a measure of principled moral reasoning, have been in the .20 s. The correlations with ethnocentrism, RWA, SDO, and empathy have been replicated in samples in Poland and Chile, although the correlations tend to be somewhat smaller than for U.S. samples (Hamer, McFarland, Penczek, et al, in preparation).…”

“…When used in another country, that country’s name is substituted for “Americans” on the “b.” items (e.g., in Poland, Mexico, Chile, see Hamer & Gutowski, ; Hamer et al, , April; Hamer, McFarland, Penczek, et al, ). When used internationally, as on the yourmorals.org website, “people of my country” is used.…”

“…With one exception (Reysen & Hackett, , Study 1), the two factors with oblimin rotation have correlated .55 or higher, indicating a higher‐order construct. Indeed, Penczek et al () and Hamer, Penczek, McFarland et al (in review) found that a model of the two subfactors and one superordinate factor was invariant across student samples in four countries (Poland, Chile, Mexico, United States). However, McFarland recently found single‐factor solutions for each of two huge yourmorals.org samples, one of more than 14,200 U.S. residents and a second of more than 4,300 non‐U.S.…”

“…IWAH is not related to conscientiousness or neuroticism. While using the HEXACO measure (Ashton & Lee, ), IWAH correlates mainly with openness (.39 in the United States and .26 in Poland), and very low with agreeableness and honesty‐humility (less than .2 in both samples), emotionality (only in U.S. sample), and extraversion (only in Polish sample; Hamer, McFarland, Penczek, et al, in preparation).…”