Need to Belong Scale

The Need to Belong Scale (NTBS) is a brief self-report instrument that measures individual differences in the strength of a person's motivation to form and maintain social bonds. Grounded in Baumeister and Leary's belongingness hypothesis -- the claim that the need to belong is a fundamental human motive -- the scale asks respondents to rate agreement with statements about wanting acceptance, fearing rejection, and needing to feel connected. Leary, Kelly, Cottrell, and Schreindorfer's 2013 validation established its construct validity across nine studies, showing that need to belong correlates with but is distinct from related constructs such as affiliation motivation and extraversion, and predicts sensitivity to social cues and reactions to exclusion. It has become a standard moderator and individual-difference measure in research on rejection, ostracism, and social motivation.