The German translation of the Oxford utilitarianism scale: Validation and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the observations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a German version of a scale to measure utilitarian views and examines how the pandemic affected these views.

Contribution

The paper presents the first validated German version of the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale and explores its use during and after the pandemic.

Findings

The German version of the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale (OUS-DE) showed good fit and reliability in pre-pandemic and post-pandemic samples.

Women scored higher on the Impartial Beneficence subscale than men in both pre- and post-pandemic samples.

Agreement with the Impartial Beneficence subscale decreased after the pandemic, and utilitarian beliefs remained stable in repeated measurements.

Abstract

The study of utilitarian inclinations is probably the most experimentally investigated aspect of morality. The Oxford Utilitarianism Scale has been developed to provide a self-report tool for reliable measurement of utilitarian views while addressing serious methodological issues with previous measures. In this study, we have translated and validated a German version of the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale (OUS-DE). The scale consists of two subscales: Impartial Beneficence (IB-DE) and Instrumental Harm (IH-DE). We conducted a procedure in a general German sample (NS1 = 378, 243 women, Mage = 25.37) before the Covid-19 pandemic. A confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a good fit of a two-factor model for OUS-DE, while internal consistency and construct reliability were acceptable. Both in the pre-pandemic and the post-pandemic sample (NS2 = 348, 206 women, Mage = 24.61) we found a sex/gender difference, with women scoring significantly higher in the IB-DE subscale than men. We also found that the mean agreement with the IB-DE subscale decreased after the pandemic. In a separate third sample (NS3 = 39, 19 women, Mage = 23.72), we observed an inverse U-shape relationship between moral behavior related to quarantine requirements and the IH-DE subscale, as measured during the peak pandemic restrictions in late 2020. Repeated OUS-DE measurement in this sample showed stability in responders’ utilitarian beliefs post-pandemic. In sum, OUS-DE is the first available measurement of utilitarian inclinations in German. The scale will enable further research on how utilitarian preconceptions affect behavior in German-speaking populations.

Figures