Study of suggestibility in adults: Conceptual delimitation and Psychometric development of the Brief Suggestibility Scale (BSS-12)

Abstract

The study aimed to construct and validate a brief scale to measure the suggestibility of fake news in the Peruvian population. In the pilot study, a sample of 318 adults was collected; in the confirmatory study, a sample of 346 adults was collected. In the pilot study, the Exploratory Factor Analysis showed the presence of two factors that managed to explain 47% of the variability of the items. In the confirmatory study, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that the two-dimensional model related to twelve items presented better-fit indices (χ2 = 89.87; df = 53; p < .005; RMSEA = .051; SRMR = .040; CFI=.97; TLI=.96) compared to a unidimensional model. It was found that both dimensions present adequate reliability indices (cognitive: ω = .81 and social: ω = .83). Furthermore, the scale has shown evidence of being strictly invariant for the group of men and women in the sequence of invariance models proposed: metric invariance (ΔCFI = -.002; ΔRMSEA = .000), scalar (ΔCFI = -.011; ΔRMSEA = .006), and strict (ΔCFI = .001; ΔRMSEA = -.003). It is concluded that the BSS-12 scale shows strong evidence of adequate psychometric functioning to measure suggestibility in the Peruvian context.