Measuring belief in conspiracy theories: the generic conspiracist beliefs scale

Brotherton, R., French, C. C., & Pickering, A. D. (2013). Measuring belief in conspiracy theories: The generic conspiracist beliefs scale. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 279. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279

L'échelle

C'est une échelle à 5 facteurs :

1. GM : Government malfeasance
   1. The government is involved in the murder of innocent citizens and/or well-known public figures, and keeps this a secret
   2. The government permits or perpetrates acts of terrorism on its own soil, disguising its involvement
   3. The government uses people as patsies to hide its involvement in criminal activity
2. ET: extraterrestrial cover-up
   1. Secret organizations communicate with extraterrestrials, but keep this fact from the public
   2. Evidence of alien contact is being concealed from the public
   3. Some UFO sightings and rumors are planned or staged in order to distract the public from real alien contact
3. MG: malevolent global conspiracies
   1. The power held by heads of state is second to that of small unknown groups who really control world politics
   2. A small, secret group of people is responsible for making all major world decisions, such as going to war
   3. Certain significant events have been the result of the activity of a small group who secretly manipulate world events
4. PW: personal wellbeing
   1. The spread of certain viruses and/or diseases is the result of the deliberate, concealed efforts of some organization ## Technology with mind-control capacities is used on people without their knowledge 0.69
   2. Experiments involving new drugs or technologies are routinely carried out on the public without their knowledge or consent
5. CI: control of information
   1. Groups of scientists manipulate, fabricate, or suppress evidence in order to deceive the public
   2. New and advanced technology which would harm current industry is being suppressed
   3. A lot of important information is deliberately concealed from the public out of self-interest

Méthodes de validation

L'échelle a été validée avec 3 études :

• une première étude a été envoyée ; elle comportait 75 items. Elle leur a permis de trouver les 5 facteurs
• une deuxième étude a utilisé 3 items représentatifs de chaque facteur pour former l'échelle. Ils ont regardé sa validité interne, test-retest, et sa corrélation avec d'autres mesures de croyances aux théories du complot (Belief in conspiracy theories inventory, Belief in 9/11 conspiracy theories, Belief in 7/7 conspiracy theories, et Belief in fictitious Red Bull conspiracy theories)
• la troisième étude a repris l'échelle à 15 items, et a évalué les corrélations avec d'autres mesures supplémentaires (Belief in conspiracy theories inventory, Interpersonal trust, Anomie, Australian sheep-goat scale (échelle de croyance au paranormal), Peters delusions inventory)
• la quatrième étude évaluait la corrélation entre le GCB et d'autres mesures (le IPIP Big Five, une Sensation seeking scale, une échelle d'intelligence émotionnelle)