Specific Conspiracy Test (SCBS)

Conspiracy theories often capture public attention because they offer alternative explanations for complex, unsettling, or high-stakes world events. While some psychological research examines conspiracism as a broad, generalized worldview or abstract distrust of authority, psychologist Chelsea Rose developed the Specific Conspiracy Belief Scale (SCBS) in 2017 at Victoria University of Wellington to evaluate how individuals respond to concrete, real-world conspiracy narratives. Beginning with an extensive collection of 49 specific historical and contemporary claims, Rose refined the instrument into a rigorous 25-item scale designed to measure endorsement across distinct narrative themes while yielding a reliable overall specific conspiracy belief score.

The SCBS divides specific conspiracy claims into four meaningfully related facets that capture different types of suspected wrongdoing. The first facet, Harm and Control, examines beliefs that clandestine organizations, elite secret societies, or foreign actors secretly orchestrate global events, manipulate political systems, or deploy covert threats against civilian populations to consolidate power. The second facet, Industry Ill Will, addresses beliefs regarding commercial exploitation, particularly the suspicion that powerful corporations in industries like pharmaceuticals and fossil fuels deliberately suppress breakthrough technologies, hide alternative remedies, or conceal health risks to protect their financial interests.

The other two facets address widely recognized cultural narratives and extraterrestrial secrecy. The Pop Conspiracies facet measures agreement with famous, culturally prominent historical theories, such as institutional foreknowledge of major national tragedies or covert intelligence agency involvement in high-profile political assassinations. The Alien Cover Ups facet, adapted from the source scale's ET Conspiracies dimension, explores the belief that governments and military institutions possess physical evidence of extraterrestrial contact and have maintained elaborate, multi-decade concealment operations, such as the secrecy surrounding Area 51 and recovered technology.

Research exploring the SCBS reveals that these four facets are moderately to strongly correlated with one another. People who find one particular conspiracy narrative plausible are statistically more likely to find others credible, even when the theories involve entirely different institutions, topics, or historical eras. At the same time, specific beliefs are significantly influenced by a person's cultural background, exposure to specialized media, personal interests, and general skepticism toward official accounts. Endorsement of specific claims does not imply irrationality, gullibility, or psychological impairment, but rather highlights the varied ways individuals process complex information.

The comparison markers shown on your results chart are illustrative estimates based on the published academic sample from the original research rather than universally standardized population norms or percentiles. Because levels of belief in specific conspiracy theories naturally fluctuate based on current news cycles, cultural differences, and demographic factors, these reference markers should be viewed as helpful points of comparison rather than definitive measures of where you stand relative to the general public.

This assessment is designed solely for educational, personal reflection, and informational purposes. It is not a diagnostic tool, clinical evaluation, mental health assessment, or test of intelligence, nor does it determine the factual accuracy of any specific historical or political claim. This online adaptation is based on the published Specific Conspiracy Belief Scale (SCBS) authored by Chelsea Rose and is not affiliated with the original researcher or Victoria University of Wellington.

References

• Rose, C. (2017). The measurement and prediction of conspiracy beliefs (doctoral thesis, Victoria University of Wellington).