For researchers
The rubric, the question bank, the sampling frame and the licence — published so the Goodness Index can be criticised properly.
The instrument, in the open
Construct
Character as five measurable foundations — Integrity, Responsibility, Compassion, Respect, Stewardship — scored 0–10 at person, institution and region level.
Instruments
Situational judgement items, a deterministic research rubric, and open administrative indicators. No self-report of virtue.
Sampling
Stratified by state, settlement type and age band; the web calculator is explicitly a convenience sample and is excluded from Index estimates.
Known limits
Social desirability bias, translation equivalence across Indian languages, and the risk of gaming once scores carry consequences.
Licence
Rubric and published data under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Institute of Goodness. Reuse needs no permission.
Pre-registration
The 2028 India Goodness Report analysis plan will be pre-registered before fieldwork begins, and the deviation log published with the report.
Work with the research team
We are looking for critics as much as collaborators: psychometricians, survey methodologists, and researchers who can test the instrument in a language or region we have not reached.
How to cite
Cite the methodology paper, not the website, when you write about the construct.
APA
Institute of Goodness. (2026). The Goodness Index: measuring character at person, institution and nation scale (Methodology paper v0.9). https://www.instituteofgoodness.org/downloads/goodness-index-methodology.pdf
BibTeX
@techreport{iog2026goodness,
title = {The Goodness Index: measuring character at person, institution and nation scale},
author = {{Institute of Goodness}},
year = {2026},
type = {Methodology paper},
number = {v0.9},
url = {https://www.instituteofgoodness.org/downloads/goodness-index-methodology.pdf}
}
