Where are you on the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale?

[Mick West]

The Generic Conspiracy Beliefs scale by Rob Brotherton, et al, is a tool frequently used by researchers to get a quick measure of an individual's belief. This is often used to try to identify what other factors influence people's tendencies to believe in Conspiracy theories. It's composed of 15 questions:

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

Each answer has a five point possible response

1. Disagree
2. Somewhat disagree
3. Neutral
4. Somewhat agree
5. Agree

An online version of the test is found here. If you want to take it then please do before reading more of this thread.

http://personality-testing.info/tests/GCBS/
(You will need to click on the "Start" button)

After taking it, post your results (at least the average) in the thread below.

 

[Mick West]

I think the test is somewhat flawed in that some of the questions are ambiguous, and there's not enough resoution in a five point scale to express very slight agreement with things.

My average score was 1.67/5, with a more detailed breakdown:

Government malfeasance: this facet reflects a belief that the government commits crimes on its own citizens. Your score was 1.33/5.

Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that information about aliens is being concealed from the public. Your score was 1/5.

Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief that governments and industry are controlled behind the scenes. Your score was 1.67/5.

Personal well-being: this facet reflects a belief that individuals are currently being harmed by concealed dangers. Your score was 1.33/5.

Control of information: this facet reflects a belief that science is manipulated. Your score was 3/5.

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A score of 1/5 is the lowest possible score (meaning you disagree with all the statements). I only got that regarding the ET coverup.

My highest score (3, neutral) was from "Control of information" which is where I think the questions are a bit ambiguous. For example: "A lot of important information is deliberately concealed from the public out of self-interest." - by who? Obviously people conceal information. Corporations and business do. What is "important information"?

 

[Mick West]

(fixed the link in the OP)

 

[deirdre]

this printout doesn't really match my feelings. ??

 

[deirdre]

For example: "A lot of important information is deliberately concealed from the public out of self-interest." - by who? Obviously people conceal information. Corporations and business do. What is "important information"?

I took this question to mean by 'the government'. but I didn't know what 'a lot' meant.

and my alien thing being 2.33 is because if "I don't know", then I put 3 for neutral.
And the green dot.. I wasn't thinking "malevolent global conspiracies", I was thinking lobbyists and/or politicians trying to save their bums.. like everyone does from time to time.

 

[Ph_]

A lot can be answered positive without actually believing in modern conspiracy theories.
I don't believe the questions and assesments are representative.

5. Groups of scientists manipulate, fabricate, or suppress evidence in order to deceive the public

Have a look at the work that christian scientists produce in order to support their theory.
Same with the smoking lobby.

9. Technology with mind-control capacities is used on people without their knowledge.

See here the brainwashing of US prisoners in the Korean war by chinese when they were inventing it.
Also see the psycho analytic methods used in making commercials from the 1920 onwards. (Adam Curtis, The century of the self documentary)

10. New and advanced technology which would harm current industry is being suppressed.

Just look at car development keeping it away from hydrogen/electric.

15. A lot of important information is deliberately concealed from the public out of self-interest.

Something most people do almost every day, self preservation is coded in our DNA.

I don't believe the questions and assesments are representative of modern conspiracy alignment.

 

[deirdre]

Have a look at the work that christian scientists produce in order to support their theory.
Same with the smoking lobby.

I don't think 'Christian scientists' are actually scientists. I think it's just a weird name they made up for their 'church'. although I could be wrong I guess.

Just look at car development keeping it away from hydrogen/electric.

I'm not sure that is the case either. If there was money to be made in hydrogen or electric cars, private industry would be making them, imo.

Although I agree with you in general.

 

[Ph_]

I'm not sure that is the case either. If there was money to be made in hydrogen or electric cars, private industry would be making them, imo.

If you can make more money on combustion cars, why bother with electric ones?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car

There are several reasons for the reluctance of some dealers to sell plug-in electric vehicles. PEVs do not offer car dealers the same profits as gasoline-powered car. Plug-in electric vehicles take more time to sell because of the explaining required, which hurts overall sales and sales people commissions. Electric vehicles also may require less maintenance, resulting in loss of service revenue, and thus undermining the biggest source of dealer profits, their service departments. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), dealers on average make three times as much profit from service as they do from new car sales. However, a NADA spokesman said there was not sufficient data to prove that electric cars would require less maintenance.

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So the electric cars are far less likely to be sold by existing dealers, and other sales methods are banned by several states.
https://cleantechnica.com/2015/06/05/states-where-tesla-cant-sell-its-cars-have-125-superchargers/

 

[Mick West]

I think the point of the scale isn't so much to gain insight into any one individual, but more to get a quick statistic that is, on average, useful for a relatively large group.

So you can take two groups of 500 random people, have one watch A New Pearl Harbor and the other watch Conspiracy Road Trip, and then measure the average GCB of each group to see what the effect is.

Or more likely, just have a large group of people take the GCB survey and in addition take a survey of their personality, socioeconomic status, education, etc. Then see what correlates with a high GCB score. The linked survey does this with an optional extra survey:

​

 

[deirdre]

If you can make more money on combustion cars, why bother with electric ones?

oh. I understood the question differently.

 

[Ph_]

I think the point of the scale isn't so much to gain insight into any one individual, but more to get a quick statistic that is, on average, useful for a relatively large group.

The test is still skewed, it pushes well informed intelligent older people higher up the scale labeling them wrongly.
Their test are an example of that.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279/full

In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis of a novel 75-item measure of non-event-based conspiracist beliefs identified five conspiracist facets. The 15-item GCB scale was developed to sample from each of these themes. Studies 2, 3, and 4 examined the structure and validity of the GCB

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Study 1 To reconcile the conflicting requirements of brevity and completeness, a lengthy measure consisting of 75 generic conspiracist items was administered to an international sample of the general public and subjected to exploratory factor analysis (N = 489)

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Study 2 aimed to establish content and criterion-related validity, as well as test-retest reliability, using a sample of undergraduate students (N = 235) as is typical of most psychological research.

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Study 3 To recruit a diverse non-student sample, volunteers were requested via a public “Psychology of the Paranormal” emailing list. A total of 208 participants (91 females, 116 males, 1 participant did not provide gender information) completed the survey. Age ranged from 18 to 63 years (M = 40.5; SD = 13.5)

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Study 4 To recruit a diverse non-student sample, volunteers were requested via online forums and mailing lists. A sample of 194 participants (88 females, 105 males, 1 participant did not provide gender information) completed the survey. Age ranged from 18 to 81 years

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So they test their 75 item test with the general public, but their 15 item test only with undergraduates or mailing list/forum readers.
That's one sure way to let differences between both groups slip in to skew the results.
I'd rather go for the 75 item test.

Edit:Removed extra empty lines that quoting makes.

 

[Mick West]

So they test their 75 item test with the general public, but their 15 item test only with undergraduates or mailing list/forum readers.
That's one sure way to let differences between both groups slip in to skew the results.

The purpose of study 1 was to create the 15 question test from the 75 question test. The 15 questions (and factor loadings) were chosen so that the GCB result from 15 questions would very closely match the 75 question version.

The remaining three studies were to compare the 15 item results against other scales, like the Belief in conspiracy theories inventory (BCTI) - which ask about specific (rather than generic) conspiracies - often localized (like the 7/7 theory in the UK, or the Smolensk theory in Poland). The intent is to see if the generic scale is a good predictor of the more specific scales. The last study used personality factor scales rather than conspiracy scales.

 

[Ph_]

Would you agree with the following?

Knowledge of confirmed conspiracies and shady dealings would let you score higher in this test, grouping you with believers in debunked conspiracies and unconfirmed conspiracies like 9/11, contrails etcetera?

Edit:Added:

Nevermind, i think i am not representative of the audience they are testing.

Explaining Enhanced Logical Consistency during Decision Making in Autism
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/28/42/10746.full

We report both behavioral evidence that ASD subjects show a reduced susceptibility to the framing effect and psycho-physiological evidence that they fail to incorporate emotional context into the decision-making process.

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[deirdre]

Nevermind, i think i am not representative of the audience they are testing.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Psychologists always like to think they've got people 'figured out' with these weirdly worded studies. and biased conclusions.
ex: the use of the term "malevolent" here

Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief that governments and industry are controlled behind the scenes.

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But you are correct in that one can't really tell the difference between 'paranoia' and 'been around the block'.

Plus they may not consider people 'conspiracy theorists', unless they score like 4 or so. ? I didn't read up on the study, so that is just a guess.

 

[Marin B]

I took the test twice. The 2nd time around I changed a few of my "disagrees" to "neutral" or between disagree and neutral, because while I don't have a belief in the particular assertion, I can't totally discount the possibility of it being true.

Government malfeasance: 1.67 then 2.33.
Extraterrestrial cover-up: 1 both times
Malevolent global conspiracies: 1 then 1.33.
Personal well-being: 1 then 1.33.
Control of information: 2.33 then 3.


Overall score : 1.4 then 1.8.

 

[George B]

Interesting, however, I would be a 4.00 out of 5.00. Don't need to take the test. I believe human genetics and history have been manipulated since the time we became Homo sapiens sapiens and probably before that.

 

[Whitebeard]

Government malfeasance: this facet reflects a belief that the government commits crimes on its own citizens. Your score was 2.67/5.
Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that information about aliens is being concealed from the public. Your score was 1/5.
Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief that governments and industry are controlled behind the scenes. Your score was 1.33/5.
Personal well-being: this facet reflects a belief that individuals are currently being harmed by concealed dangers. Your score was 1.33/5.
Control of information: this facet reflects a belief that science is manipulated. Your score was 2.67/5.

Your overall score for conspiracist beliefs was 1.8/5. The average score of college students is 2.22

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[Whitebeard]

Just look at car development keeping it away from hydrogen/electric.

Back in the 70s maybe, but times they are a changing...
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...all-diesel-and-petrol-cars-and-vans-from-2040

Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health.

The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a protracted high court legal battle.

The government warned that the move, which will also take in hybrid vehicles, was needed because of the unnecessary and avoidable impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health. Ministers believe it poses the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing up to £2.7bn in lost productivity in one recent year.

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In Europe there is a growing serge of public opinion against petrol / diesel powered vehicles, governments are beginning to listen to public opinions and legislate accordingly. As for the motor manufactures, they are now faced with the stark choice of embrace the new clean technology or go out of business. So they are jumping on the bandwagon. This a report about BMW but with most if not all major European car builders it is a similar story
http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/...-electric-cars-after-ev-sales-jump-50-percent

It certainly seems that BMW is in it for the long haul now when it comes to electric cars. It has become evident this is the shared thought amongst many manufacturers, as they invest more money into the infrastructure of electric charging and begin to pump out more and more EVs in the coming years. BMW has announced its plans to release several new EVs in the near future, including a new i8 roadster in 2018, a fully electric Mini in 2019, a fully electric X3 in 2020, and BMW’s autonomous electric iNext concept in 2021.

Why is BMW investing so much in electric cars? BMW recognizes the growth in sales, sure. But from a marketing perspective, BMW states that, from experience, they know customers prefer to have choices. And BMW has taken that to mean EVs, so it is prioritizing electrification of its vehicle lineup to meet this demand. BMW currently has eight variations of electric vehicles available for consumers to purchase.

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[Leifer]

1.27/5

 

[Rory]

1.73. I scored pretty high on the "science is hiding stuff from you" section (3.33) - I was also thinking about oil companies/lobbyists, etc vs electric cars.

Also feel the questions are open to a lot of interpretation. For example:

1. The government is involved in the murder of innocent citizens and/or well-known public figures, and keeps this a secret.

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Which government? I'm assuming they mean "the US government" - but not everyone lives in America. They should make this explicit. (I answered according to my assumption - probably would give different answers for US vs other governments.)

4. The spread of certain viruses and/or diseases is the result of the deliberate, concealed efforts of some organization.

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Made me wonder whether I should answer the questions based on what I feel is happening now, or what has happened in the past. If I include Tuskegee, that's one answer. If I go by what I feel organisations are doing today, and will do in the near future - seems like the fairest way to measure any group, or any person - that would be another.

10. New and advanced technology which would harm current industry is being suppressed.

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As stated, electric cars.

12. Certain significant events have been the result of the activity of a small group who secretly manipulate world events.

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"Significant" to who? I'd like to know how that word was being defined. And what's the difference between "world events" and "events"?

15. A lot of important information is deliberately concealed from the public out of self-interest.

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Again, I'd like to know what "a lot" meant - and the same could go for "important": they seem totally subjective terms. Also doesn't say who's doing the concealing, or where. Government? Big business? Nigeria? North Korea?

 

[George B]

Interesting, however, I would be a 4.00 out of 5.00. Don't need to take the test. I believe human genetics and history have been manipulated since the time we became Homo sapiens sapiens and probably before that.

Well, I went ahead and took the survey. I was very close to what I predicted.

Your overall score for conspiracist beliefs was 3.93/5.

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[cloudspotter]

Government malfeasance

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: this facet reflects a belief that the government commits crimes on its own citizens. Your score was 2/5.

Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that information about aliens is being concealed from the public. Your score was 1/5.

Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief that governments and industry are controlled behind the scenes. Your score was 2/5.

Personal well-being: this facet reflects a belief that individuals are currently being harmed by concealed dangers. Your score was 1.33/5.

Control of information: this facet reflects a belief that science is manipulated. Your score was 3.67/5.
Your overall score for conspiracist beliefs was 2/5. The average score of college students is 2.22 (Brotherton, 2013).

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The Exxon coverup sprang to mind when I hit the question about manipulation

 

[Willie]

1/5 across the board

 

[banditsat12oclock]

4.13 average

Seems high to me, but what do I know?

I agree with much of what Rory and Ph_ have written, though. The questions are too broad to be of much meaning. Whose government? Which countries, etc? When one has read about MK Ultra, Operation Mockingbird, the assassination of Lumumba, the coup against Mosaddegh, 3M and the C8/PFOA scandal, Union Carbide and Bhopal, LIBOR rigging, etc., all of which have been proven beyond reasonable doubt, one can very much believe in conspiracies without necessarily extending them to shape-shifting aliens.

I opted for the middle several times as I feel I'm agnostic on various topics (i.e. I have no way of knowing whether the government has or hasn't done something), which seemed resonable to me, but on others I picked 5 because I think small groups of people are responsible for most things that happen, e.g. a lead scientist and his/her team, religious leaders and their inner circle advisers, a minister and his/her advisers, a headteacher and his/her leadership team, a CEO and the board, a ship or plane's captain and his/her officers, a leader and a team of terrorist underlings, an editor and his/her staff, etc.

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Is this weighted for plausibility?

Several of the questions are just not open to any real dispute...Others are barking mad.

 

[FatPhil]

These are the results of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale. The GCBS measures conspiracist beliefs broken down into five components, they are graphed below.

Government malfeasance: this facet reflects a belief that the government commits crimes on its own citizens. Your score was 2.67/5.
Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that information about aliens is being concealed from the public. Your score was 1/5.
Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief that governments and industry are controlled behind the scenes. Your score was 1.33/5.
Personal well-being: this facet reflects a belief that individuals are currently being harmed by concealed dangers. Your score was 1.67/5.
Control of information: this facet reflects a belief that science is manipulated. Your score was 3/5.

Your overall score for conspiracist beliefs was 1.93/5. The average score of college students is 2.22 (Brotherton, 2013).

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I can live with that. I would have liked a way of scoring "0" in some of the more hatstand questions.

 

[JMartJr]

Is this weighted for plausibility?

Several of the questions are just not open to any real dispute...Others are barking mad.

Interestingly, a statement with which many conspiracy theorists would agree, the disagreement coming in which ones are on which side of the line.

 

[FatPhil]

Data on how polarising each question is would be interesting. The *mean* tells you nothing, it's the bimodality that's interesting.

 

[Mendel]

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

1. is proven for some countries, I think?

5. is definitely proven, I just saw an article today:

Article:

Health research is based on trust. Health professionals and journal editors reading the results of a clinical trial assume that the trial happened and that the results were honestly reported. But about 20% of the time, said Ben Mol, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Monash Health, they would be wrong.

Source: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/07/05/time-to-assume-that-health-research-is-fraudulent-until-proved-otherwise/

6. happened in Germany, once proven (das Celler Loch), at least once strongly suspected (that I know of) (NSU/Kassel)

12. "Bay of Pigs" comes to mind, and similar operations

and 15. is also obviously true, for example the details of the proposed TTIP treaty were kept secret; it kinda depends on how you define "a lot"

 

[FatPhil]

I took the test twice.
...

Overall score : 1.4 then 1.8.

I'd forgotten that I'd already done this, and redid it with a whole new attitude after the mention of it in the Welcome thread this morning, and came up with a fairly different score. There is some flexibility in the interpretation of the questions, and I was way stricter in my interpretion this time. When an occurence is associated with a motivation, and we have evidence of those occurances, but no proof of the claimed modivation, I had to disagree more than I must have in the past. E.g. I viewed number 5 as being a true occurance with the wrong motive, so false - the deceit is just part of the publish or perish games - they did it for the publication record and better chances of future funding. Likewise, "never ascribe to malice what can be blamed on incompetence".

Anyway:

Government malfeasance: this facet reflects a belief that the government commits crimes on its own citizens. Your score was 1.33/5.
Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that information about aliens is being concealed from the public. Your score was 1/5.
Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief that governments and industry are controlled behind the scenes. Your score was 1/5.
Personal well-being: this facet reflects a belief that individuals are currently being harmed by concealed dangers. Your score was 1.67/5.
Control of information: this facet reflects a belief that science is manipulated. Your score was 1.67/5.

Your overall score for conspiracist beliefs was 1.33/5.

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Down from my prior 1.93. I can live with both scores.

The thing that most worries me about this test is that @Mendel managed to score 0.67/5 on personal well-being. The range should be 1-5. You can get the text summary he quoted by changing the 4th number in the URL query parameters to '-0.33',
e.g. to change my current https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/GCBS/results.php?s=0.33,0,0,0.67,0.67
to https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/GCBS/results.php?s=0.33,0,0,-0.33,0.67
But why would someone feel the need to need to mess around with the URL - very suspish! (But it might be a bug, because today I believe incompetence dominates malice.)

 

[Mendel]

The thing that most worries me about this test is that @Mendel managed to score 0.67/5 on personal well-being. The range should be 1-5. You can get the text summary he quoted by changing the 4th number in the URL query parameters to '-0.33',
e.g. to change my current https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/GCBS/results.php?s=0.33,0,0,0.67,0.67
to https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/GCBS/results.php?s=0.33,0,0,-0.33,0.67
But why would someone feel the need to need to mess around with the URL - very suspish! (But it might be a bug, because today I believe incompetence dominates malice.)

I assure you that I did not manipulate, fabricate, or suppress my result.

 

[Ann K]

Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that information about aliens is being concealed from the public. Your score was 1/5.

I'll just point out that these questions (3, 8, 13, and possibly some of the others), to get any result higher than 1, require you first to believe that there IS any information about aliens, and then to believe it's being covered up.

5. is definitely proven, I just saw an article today:
Article: Health research is based on trust. Health professionals and journal editors reading the results of a clinical trial assume that the trial happened and that the results were honestly reported. But about 20% of the time, said Ben Mol, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Monash Health, they would be wrong. Source: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/07/05/time-to-assume-that-health-research-is-fraudulent-until-proved-otherwise/

Question 5 asks if health information is being manipulated "in order to deceive the public", yet it seems likely that such activity often takes place in order to keep a job, pad a resume, or (perhaps) sell a product. Deception of the public is a result, but not necessarily the intention.

These are a couple of instances in which the survey is open to many interpretations.

 

[FatPhil]

I assure you that I did not manipulate, fabricate, or suppress my result.

I've modified my post to remove all three of those words, and thereby left it unchanged.
You didn't use telekinesis, aromatherapy or quantum bozodynamics to get an impossible score either.
I do believe that the list of things that did not take place is practically infinite, listing them seems like a rather pointless endeavour.

 

[captancourgette]

Government malfeasance: this facet reflects a belief that the government commits crimes on its own citizens. Your score was 2/5.
Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that information about aliens is being concealed from the public. Your score was 1/5.
Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief that governments and industry are controlled behind the scenes. Your score was 2/5.
Personal well-being: this facet reflects a belief that individuals are currently being harmed by concealed dangers. Your score was 1/5.
Control of information: this facet reflects a belief that science is manipulated. Your score was 1.67/5.

Your overall score for conspiracist beliefs was 1.53/5.

Obviously gonna be different depending on what country you're talking about for some questions.
eg 1. The government is involved in the murder of innocent citizens and/or well-known public figures, and keeps this a secret.
I would answer different for My country (NZ) than eg Russia, ignoring Tonga

Some have obviously happened multiple times eg 5. Groups of scientists manipulate, fabricate, or suppress evidence in order to deceive the public.
Most famously perhaps Smoking, though my fav is Thomas Midley (mainly due to his cause of death)

Facing a crowd of journalists, inventor Thomas Midgley Jr. poured a lead additive over his hands and then proceeded to inhale its fumes for about a minute. Unfazed, he said, “I could do this every day without getting any health problems whatsoever.”

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https://www.wral.com/story/the-man-who-almost-destroyed-the-planet-twice/21448745

9. Technology with mind-control capacities is used on people without their knowledge.
Does this include the 'nudges' companies/governments use all the time to try and get the populace to choose/buy someway, Sure its not contrail like mindcontrol but its still a manipulation of ones thinking
but even though theres been stuff like

Stephen Kinzer, has spent several years investigating the CIA's mind control program

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/11/20/937009453/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief

To me I answered as if they were meaning contrail like stuff.
Actually I answered like this with all the non UFO questions, i.e. I treated the Questions as if they were talkings about X as being not a rare event

I'ld be more interested in if the Questions were about specific conspiracy theories, eg JFK, Twin Towers, Moon Landings, Paul McCartney etc as I believe with specific events its less open to interpretation

 

[FatPhil]

Some have obviously happened multiple times eg 5. Groups of scientists manipulate, fabricate, or suppress evidence in order to deceive the public.

One thing to note is that the questions are asked, and the conclusions presented, in the present tense. Something that happened in the 60s and that came under critical public scrutiny, is technically irrelevant to the questions now.

I worked out why my scores were higher in the past - CoViD. The quality of official, governmental, science communication in that time was *atrocious*[*]. And it was motivated. It ticked the boxes, so I scored the scores.

[* in every country in the world that I am aware of (10-20 countries?) apart from Estonia - our top science spokesman was absolutely brilliant from beginning to end. She even turned down a $$promotion$$ to a cabinet position afterwards, as she felt she was more useful where she was.]

 

[MonkeeSage]

Government malfeasance: this facet reflects a belief that the government commits crimes on its own citizens. Your score was 1.67/5.
Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that information about aliens is being concealed from the public. Your score was 1/5.
Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief that governments and industry are controlled behind the scenes. Your score was 1.67/5.
Personal well-being: this facet reflects a belief that individuals are currently being harmed by concealed dangers. Your score was 1.33/5.
Control of information: this facet reflects a belief that science is manipulated. Your score was 1.67/5.

Your overall score for conspiracist beliefs was 1.47/5.

Content from External Source

Like others I found several of the questions open to different interpretations. I assumed the more "hardcore conspiracy" interpretation was what was being asked about, which of course colored how I answered.

For example

The government is involved in the murder of innocent citizens and/or well-known public figures, and keeps this a secret.

Content from External Source

Sure I'll give you a "Weak Disagree" on that for something like drone or missile strikes that have collaterally killed non-combatants -- assuming "Strong Agree" is like a conspiracy where the government is killing whistleblowers with secret directed energy weapons and such.

Ps. I realize what constitutes "murder" is even open to different interpretations. Not trying to get into that, just giving an example of how the interpretation of the question effected my answer.

 

[FatPhil]

Like others I found several of the questions open to different interpretations. I assumed the more "hardcore conspiracy" interpretation was what was being asked about, which of course colored how I answered.

For example

The government is involved in the murder of innocent citizens and/or well-known public figures, and keeps this a secret.

Content from External Source

Sure I'll give you a "Weak Disagree" on that for something like drone or missile strikes that have collaterally killed non-combatants -- assuming "Strong Agree" is like a conspiracy where the government is killing whistleblowers with secret directed energy weapons and such.

The choice of the word "citizen" rather than "people" implied to me that they were referring to killing their own citizens rather than foreign randos. Depending on the definition of murder, some wrongful death sentences could technically tick that box. But the cover-ups that happen in those situations are ass-covering as they know they screwed up, rather than keeping shady institutional killings secret. Technically both are keeping something secret, but they're different types of secret with different motives.

 

[Eburacum]

The questions seem to assume that they are talking about a particular government. Some governments are more corrupt than others, so if you cherry-pick all the worst governments around the world you'll get a high score, but if you choose a relatively well-behaved government the score will be low. Trouble is, I can't really think of a truly well-behaved government right now.

All the alien-related questions should be capable of a 0 answer - there isn't any evidence to cover up. That doesn't mean that there is complete openness about the subject, of course.

 

[Gary C]

Government malfeasance: this facet reflects a belief that
the government commits crimes on its own citizens. Your
score was 1.33/5.

Rationale: When you include what some of the US State Governments are doing, some agreement becomes reasonable.

Extraterrestrial cover-up: this facet reflects a belief that
information about aliens is being concealed from the
public. Your score was 1/5.

Self explanatory

Malevolent global conspiracies: this facet reflects a belief
that governments and industry are controlled behind the
scenes. Your score was 1.33/5.

Rationale: Sugar Industry covering up links to diabetes and more well known Oil and Tobacco industry activities.

Personal well-being: this facet reflects a belief that
individuals are currently being harmed by concealed
dangers. Your score was 1.33/5.

Rationale: CoVID fiasco

Control of information: this facet reflects a belief that
science is manipulated. Your score was 2/5.

Rationale: I agree with the previous poster that financial and other self-interested motivations are becoming more serious blemishes on the image of science in the public mind. The proliferation of low quality journals and circumventing peer review as documented in some of our UFO threads is becoming a serious problem.