Personal Beauty Values: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measurement Scale

Abstract

Due to the explosive growth of social media technology worldwide, consumers are exposed to abundant stimuli across cultures that affect their internalization of societal ideal of beauty and the formation of self-concept. In response to this, the beauty industry is facing challenges to personalize their offerings to an array of diverse consumers who are seeking brands that resonate with their values and foster a true emotional bond. Consumers' personal value with respect to beauty is an important antecedent of the internalization of societal ideal of beauty, which eventually control their appearance-conscious emotions and behaviors, thereby play an important role for understanding the psychological mechanisms that underlie diverse beautification procedures. However, a systematic scale to measure personal beauty values of consumers across cultures has yet to be established. In this article, we attempt to bridge this gap by developing, measuring, and validating a new Personal Beauty Values Scale through a series of studies using independent samples from the United States (n = 348, n = 1039), the United Kingdom (n = 401, n = 396), Japan (n = 1011), and Denmark (n = 981). Subsequently, we investigate influences of personal beauty values on one of the critical beautification procedures invasive to the human body, that is, cosmetic surgery. Specifically, the nomological validation using the U.S. sample (n = 1039) demonstrated that the distinct characteristics of the five personal beauty values dimensions differently affected appearance-conscious emotions such as shame and hubristic pride, thereby unveiling the psychological mechanism behind consideration of cosmetic surgery.