Naive skepticism scale: development and validation tests applied to the chilean population.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Science

Background:

• Skepticism is linked to critical thinking, but naive skepticism may increase misinformation susceptibility.
• Existing skepticism scales are limited in scope, necessitating new assessment tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a scale for measuring naive skepticism in adults.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 446 adults, with data from pilot and validity-testing phases.
• Psychometric analyses included exploratory structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis.
• Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega.

Main Results:

• The naive skepticism scale demonstrated good reliability (ω > 0.8) and validity.
• The scale showed gender invariance and a moderate inverse association with positive COVID-19 vaccine attitudes.
• Internal structure validity was supported by CFI=0.966, TLI=0.951, and RMSEA=0.079.

Conclusions:

• The developed naive skepticism scale possesses acceptable psychometric properties for adult populations.
• This scale enables the assessment of naive skepticism and its implications for understanding misinformation.
• Further research should explore the scale's limitations and theoretical applications.