Different Faces of Kindness. Development and Validation of the Kind Attitude Scale

Although kindness has been a subject of study for psychologists, the lack of consensus in defining and operationalizing this concept poses challenges in conducting reliable comparisons of research findings and frequently leads to inconsistencies in outcomes. The development of a tool that accounts for the multifaceted nature of kindness could facilitate progress in this area. A review of the research suggests that kindness is a complex construct, which can be classified as an attitude consisting of three dimensions: 1) emotional, related to the experience of positive emotions toward other people; 2) cognitive, manifested in beliefs about other people or humanity in general; and 3) behavioral, associated with the undertaking of specific actions aimed at improving the situation of others. A review of research and literature led to the construction of the Kind Attitude Scale (KAS). Study 1 aimed to verify its factor structure. It confirmed the validity of the proposed model, with the three dimensions of kindness. Study 2 further corroborated the three-factor model of kindness by examining the theoretical validity of the KAS. The obtained results confirmed the proposed three-factor model, indicating that the KAS is a reliable, gender-invariant measure and can be utilized in future research on kindness.