Abstract
Several self-report measures of conspiracist beliefs have been developed in Western populations, but examination of their psychometric properties outside Europe and North America is limited. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of three widely-used measures of conspiracist beliefs in Iran. We translated the Belief in Conspiracy Theory Inventory (BCTI), Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ), and Generic Conspiracist Belief Scale (GCBS) into Persian. Factorial validity was examined using principal-axis factor analysis in a community sample from Tehran, Iran (N = 544). Further, the relationships between scores on these measures and hypothesized antecedents (i.e., education, schizotypal personality, information processing style, superstitious beliefs, religiosity, and political orientation) were examined. Overall, we failed to find support for the parent factor structures of two of the three scales (BCTI and GCBS) and evidence of construct validity for all three scales was limited. These results highlight the necessity of further psychometric work on existing measures of conspiracy theories in diverse culturo-linguistic groups and the development of context-specific measures of conspiracist beliefs.
Highlights
Some people believe immunization does not serve its intended purpose, global warming is a hoax, humans never landed on moon, and the United States (U.S.) government was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks
We assessed the psychometric properties of three widely-used measures of conspiracist beliefs, namely the Belief in Conspiracy Theory Inventory (BCTI), Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ), and Generic Conspiracist Belief Scale (GCBS) [12,21,22]
Our results suggested that evidence of convergent validity was limited, insofar as correlations between scores derived from our translated conspiracist belief measures and additional measures were weak at best
Summary
Some people believe immunization does not serve its intended purpose, global warming is a hoax, humans never landed on moon, and the United States (U.S.) government was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Such beliefs are commonly referred to as conspiracy theories, broadly defined as a subset of false narratives in which the ultimate cause of an event is believed to be due to a malevolent plot by multiple agents secretly working together [1,2]. Conspiracy theories in Iran contra-indicatory evidence [4,5,6]. In the past two decades, there has been increasing interest in psychological predictors and outcomes of endorsing conspiracy theories
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