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Assessing and understanding hospitality: The Brief Hospitality Scale
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Assessing and understanding hospitality: The Brief Hospitality Scale

Robert Biswas-Diener, Kostadin Kushlev, Rong Su, Fallon Goodman, Todd B. Kashdan and Ed Diener
International journal of wellbeing, Vol.9(2), pp.14-26
07/08/2019
DOI: 10.5502/ijw.v9i2.839
url
https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v9i2.839View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Although hospitality is a valued social and cultural phenomenon, it has been largely overlooked in the psychology research literature. Our studies are designed to advance the understanding of hospitality by creating a brief measure of it that can be used across cultures. In Study 1, we employed a large sample of Americans to create and begin validation of a measure of hospitality: The Brief Hospitality Scale, or BHS. In all nations and both studies the scale had a single strong factor and high internal consistency. In Study 2, we administered the measure to respondents from 11 nations and found that people in some countries (e.g. Iran) are significantly more hospitable than are people in others (e.g. Singapore). The strongest personality correlates of hospitality were those associated with social characteristics, such as extraversion, agreeableness, and feelings of group belonging. The very strongest association with hospitality was ability to take the perspective of others. Thus, hospitality represents more than simple sociability, and seems to rest on feelings of togetherness with others, concern for their well-being, and positive feelings toward them. We found in both studies that hospitality is associated with higher levels of well-being, for example optimism, psychosocial flourishing, and positive affect.

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