The Wilson–Patterson scale measures general conservatism by asking people whether they favour or believe in a list of brief, familiar issue labels, such as the death penalty, modern art, royalty and divorce, instead of agreeing with lengthy opinion statements. Wilson and Patterson (1968) argued that short labels capture a person's immediate, affective reaction and reduce response bias, ambiguity and social desirability. They selected the 50 items from a pool of more than 130 to reflect religious fundamentalism, right-wing politics, insistence on strict rules, intolerance of minorities, preference for convention, anti-hedonism and resistance to science, and standardised the scale with 496 respondents in Christchurch, New Zealand. The label-based format became the model for many later ideology measures, including the SECS.
Yes / ? / No to the question "Which of the following do you favour or believe in?"
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Split-half reliability, correcting the correlation between the first and second 25 items with the Spearman-Brown formula, was .94 (N = 244; Wilson and Patterson 1968, p. 267). Known-groups validity was supported: scores clearly separated a conservative and a socialist student political club, and a Bible society from a group of scientists and doctors, with groups matched on age, sex and status. Scores rose with age and were slightly higher for women. Scoring: each "Yes" to an odd-numbered item and each "No" to an even-numbered item scores 2, and "?" or any other response scores 1, giving a 0–100 total; the alternating keying controls for acquiescence. Many items are dated or reflect 1960s New Zealand, and several refer to racist positions (e.g., white superiority, apartheid); researchers typically update the item list for contemporary samples, which changes the scale's psychometric properties. Item 43 is misnumbered as 34 in the original table.
Wilson, G. D., & Patterson, J. R. (1968). A new measure of conservatism. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 7(4), 264–269.
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