Development and Validation of Conspirational Mentality Scale: Correlates of Conspirational Mentality

Abstract

The study Investigated the relationship between Conspirational Mentality, trust in people, and paranoid ideation. Due to the unavailability of a standardized tool to measure Conspirational Mentality, the study developed a psychometric scale for Professionals. To achieve these objectives, the study was divided into two phases including the development and validation of the scale and its empirical evaluation. After developing of initial item pools, additional items were generated through the Exploratory Factor analysis (EFA). Data was collected from 500 Professionals consisted on Male (n =239, 47.8%) and Female (n=261, 52.2%) in Sargodha, Pakistan. The analysis indicated that Conspirational Mentality Scale (CMS) contains three factors, including selfish gains, external forces, and revenge attitude. Moreover, hypotheses were supported as Conspirational Mentality has a positive correlation with Paranoid Ideation and a negative correlation with Trust in people. These findings suggested that Conspirational Mentality Scale (CMS) is a reliable and valid measurement tool and it was also proved that due to Consipirational Mentality, Professionals lack Trust in people and become paranoid. Thus, the study has applied significance.