Personal Beauty Values Scale (PBVS)

Abstract

The Personal Beauty Values Scale (PBVS), developed by Glückstad et al. (2025), is a comprehensive multidimensional assessment tool designed for the cross-cultural evaluation of Personal Beauty Values (PBV). The scale development followed established psychometric procedures and involved validation studies using independent samples from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Denmark. Initially comprising 27 items, the scale was refined through Factor Analysis to a final 14-item structure across five key dimensions: Cultural Flawlessness (CF), Social Appropriateness (SA), Self-Improvement (SI), Natural Uniqueness (NU), and Inner Beauty (IB). The validation process confirmed strong Reliability (internal consistency and temporal stability) and Validity (convergent, discriminant, and nomological), alongside crucial cross-group Measurement Invariance.

Keywords

Cross Cultural Differences, Cultural Flawlessness, Inner Beauty, Natural Uniqueness, Personal Beauty Values, Self-Improvement, Social Appropriateness, Attitude Measures, Personal Values, Physical Attractiveness, Social Norms, Social Values, Social and Interpersonal Measures

Authors

Glückstad, Fumiko Kano, Kobayashi, Hiromi, Seddig, Daniel, Davidov, Eldad, Nakamura, Rie

Purpose

The primary objective of the Personal Beauty Values Scale (PBVS) is to provide a standardized, psychometrically sound instrument capable of assessing the diverse personal beauty values (PBV) prioritized by adult consumers. This measurement tool addresses a critical gap in cross-cultural research by allowing researchers to quantify and compare beauty value orientations across different nations.

The scale facilitates a deeper understanding of how these values influence consumer behavior, self-perception, and attitudes toward aesthetic decisions, such as considering cosmetic surgery.

Construct

The PBVS is structured to measure Personal Beauty Values (PBV) as a composite construct defined by five distinct dimensions. These dimensions represent varied philosophical and practical approaches to beauty held by individuals:

• Cultural Flawlessness (CF): The value placed on achieving socially recognized standards of physical perfection and minimizing perceived imperfections.

• Social Appropriateness (SA): The value derived from aligning one’s appearance with social expectations and norms relevant to specific contexts or groups.

• Self-Improvement (SI): The value assigned to continuous effort, investment, and modification (e.g., through cosmetics or procedures) aimed at enhancing one’s physical appearance.

• Natural Uniqueness (NU): The value placed on inherent, distinctive physical traits and the rejection of artificial modification or conformity.

• Inner Beauty (IB): The value prioritizing non-physical qualities, such as kindness, character, and intellect, over external appearance.

Validity

The PBVS demonstrates robust Validity across several criteria essential for a cross-cultural scale.

• Convergent Validity: This was confirmed through the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) scores, which were consistently above the required 0.5 threshold for all five dimensions, indicating that the items effectively converge on their intended latent constructs.

• Discriminant Validity: Strong discriminant validity was established using the Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) ratio (Henseler, Ringle, & Sarstedt 2015). All inter-component HTMT ratios were below the conservative 0.85 cutoff, ensuring that the five dimensions measure distinct concepts.

• Nomological Validity: The scale successfully predicted theoretically relevant outcomes. The five PBV dimensions displayed expected positive or negative correlations with constructs such as shame, guilt, hubristic pride, authentic pride, and objectification. Furthermore, the PBV dimensions (SA, CF, and SI) were shown to have direct or indirect effects on the consideration of cosmetic surgery, mediated by feelings of hubristic pride or shame.

• Test Methodology: The validation utilized Test Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, and Nomological Validity procedures.

Reliability

The Reliability of the PBVS was evaluated using both internal consistency and temporal stability measures.

• Internal Consistency: Measures of internal consistency, including Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega (Hayes & Coutts 2020; McDonald 1999), met the benchmark of 0.7 for four of the five dimensions. Although the Social Appropriateness (SA) dimension showed coefficient values slightly below 0.7, they were deemed acceptable within the context of the overall model.

• Temporal Stability: Test-retest reliability was assessed using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) over a 14-to-20-day interval. The results indicated moderate stability across all measures: NU (0.609), CF (0.589), SA (0.571), SI (0.505), IB (0.507), and the overall PBV composite (0.676).

• Test Methodology: The reliability testing involved Test Reliability, Internal Consistency assessment, and Test-Retest Reliability.

Factor Analysis

The psychometric development of the PBVS relied heavily on advanced Factor Analysis techniques to confirm its dimensional structure and cross-cultural applicability.

• Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): EFA was instrumental in purifying the initial item pool, resulting in the final, parsimonious 14-item, five-dimensional structure. This model demonstrated strong explanatory power, accounting for 71.071% of the total cumulative variance.

• Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): CFA provided crucial confirmation of the model’s structure. The 14-item, five-dimensional model exhibited excellent fit to the data, as evidenced by stringent fit indices: df = 67, Chi-square = 117.117, CFI = 0.971, RMSEA = 0.047, and SRMR = 0.048.

• Structural Equation Modeling (SEM): SEM was employed to map the relationships between the five PBV dimensions and various psychological constructs, confirming their differentiated roles in predicting outcomes like pride and shame.

• Measurement Invariance: Cross-cultural robustness was supported by Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MG-CFA). The study established metric and scalar Measurement Invariance across four balanced age-gender segments, and full cross-group metric invariance was supported across six national/gender groups (males and females in the US, Japan, and Denmark), ensuring valid comparisons across these diverse contexts.

• Test Methodology: Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Measurement Invariance, and Structural Equation Modeling were utilized.

Instrument

Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire

Format: The scale items are rated using a six-point Likert scale, where 1 corresponds to “Very much applies” and 6 corresponds to “Does not apply at all.” The administration method is Electronic.

Language Available: Danish, English, Japanese

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)

Population Details: The validation samples consisted of Adult Consumers located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Denmark.

Test Methodology: The development process incorporated established procedures for scale development, cross-cultural translation, EFA, CFA, and MG-CFA.

Keywords

Cross Cultural Differences, Cultural Flawlessness, Inner Beauty, Natural Uniqueness, Personal Beauty Values, Self-Improvement, Social Appropriateness, Attitude Measures, Personal Values, Physical Attractiveness, Social Norms, Social Values, Social and Interpersonal Measures

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Eldad Davidov: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3396-969X. No ORCID data is available for Glückstad, Fumiko Kano, Kobayashi, Hiromi, Seddig, Daniel, or Nakamura, Rie.

Affiliation Email addresses: Glückstad, Fumiko Kano: [email protected].

Correspondence Address: Glückstad, Fumiko Kano: [email protected].

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact the Corresponding Author for permissions regarding the use of the scale.

Fee: No fee is associated with the use of the scale.

Test Year: 2025

Reference’s

Glückstad, F. K., Kobayashi, H., Seddig, D., Davidov, E., & Nakamura, R. (2025). Personal beauty values: Development and validation of a multidimensional measurement scale. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 24(1), 282–303. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.2421

Items of the Personal Beauty Values Scale (PBVS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

No data is Available