Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ)
Psychology: Values & BeliefsReliability: alpha 0.863 sample items
About this scale
A 5-item measure of dispositional belief in conspiracies — the tendency to perceive coordinated covert plots behind societal events.
Sample item(s)
“I think that many very important things happen in the world, which the public is never informed about”
“I think that politicians usually do not tell us the true motives for their decisions”
“I think that government agencies closely monitor all citizens”
Reliability
Reported internal consistency: alpha 0.86. As a rule of thumb, Cronbach’s α ≥ .70 is considered acceptable, ≥ .80 good, and ≥ .90 excellent for established measures.
Notes
Free for academic use.
Source & citation
Bruder, M., Haffke, P., Neave, N., Nouripanah, N., & Imhoff, R. (2013): Measuring individual differences in generic beliefs in conspiracy theories across cultures: Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire. Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 4, Article 225.
Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.
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