Sciacca, F., Hichy, Z., De Pasquale, C., Di Marco, G., & Baeli, V.
An Italian version of the Gullibility Scale
These two studies aimed to propose an Italian version of the Gullibility Scale (Teunisse et al., 2020), testing its factor structure and verifying antecedents and consequences of gullibility. The Gullibility Scale is a bidimensional scale, composed of 12 items, that was validated in Australia using a large sample. In Study 1, 198 Italian adults completed a questionnaire containing the Italian version of the Gullibility Scale and the Social Desirability Scale. Results confirmed the two-factor structure (persuadability and insensitivity) with a high order factor (gullibility) of the Italian version of the Gullibility Scale; no correlations were found with social desirability. In Study 2, 287 Italian adults completed a questionnaire containing the Italian version of the Gullibility Scale, the Big Five Inventory, and 11 questions on fake news about COVID-19. Results confirmed the same factor structure found in Study 1. With regards to antecedents, results showed that both persuadability and insensitivity positively correlate with agreeableness and neuroticism; while, regarding consequences, results showed that persuadability positively correlates with fake news about COVID-19. Finally, persuadability mediates the relationship between agreeableness and fake news about COVID-19.
Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, 2021, Vol. 28, pp. 427-440, DOI: 10.4473/TPM28.4.3
