Four unipolar adjectives assessing how suspicious, concerned, wary, and mistrustful a person feels toward other people in general. Packard, Gershoff, and Wooten (2016) used the scale as a manipulation check to verify that an experimental prime had successfully induced interpersonal distrust among participants. The brevity and adjective-only format make it a quick, low-burden measure suitable for manipulation checks or as a covariate.
7-point unipolar (1=not at all, 7=very much)
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Alpha of .96 was reported for the pretest sample (n=78); alpha was not reported for the main study. The scale was designed as a manipulation check rather than a primary outcome measure, so formal validity testing was not conducted. Respondents were directed to indicate how they felt toward other people in general. The source of the items was not identified by the authors.
Packard, G., Gershoff, A.D., & Wooten, D.B. (2016). When boastful word of mouth helps versus hurts social perceptions and persuasion. Journal of Consumer Research, 43(1), 26–43.
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