From Fragmentation to Unity: Creating and Adapting the Unified Compassion Scale for Animals and Nature to Explore Sustainable Consumption
(A2025-126201)

AUTHORS

Ecem Emur-Bilge, Technical University of Munich; Jutta Roosen, Technical University of Munich

ABSTRACT

Compassion is an understudied concept in psychology and even more so in consumer behavior. Most researchers have measured compassion for other people and self-compassion, but only a few researchers have focused on compassion for animals and nature. Moreover, some existing scales measure compassion but each has advantages and disadvantages. Due to this, in this study, we aim to combine these scales to create the Unified Compassion Scale (UCS) and validate it in different cultures. We also plan to adapt the UCS to animal and nature context. Following the scale development, our goal is to use the UCS in consumer research to better understand sustainable consumption. The UCS contributes to the current state of research by providing a standardized instrument to measure compassion, especially in unexplored domains, and it has practical applications in consumer behavior, helping to predict ethical and sustainable choices.