Niederhoffer's cynicism scale: Reliability and beyond

The validity of Niederhoffer's cynicism scale

“…This and other related research (e.g., Rafky, 1975) set the stage for subsequent studies focusing on the number of dimensions that comprise the cynicism scale (Anson et al, 1986;Lotz & Regoli, 1977;Regoli, Crank, & Culbertson, 1989;Regoli, Culbertson, & Crank, 1991;Regoli & Poole, 1979). Various replications confirmed Niederhoffer's unidimensional cynicism trait (Hou, Miracle, Pool, & Regoli, 1983), while others found up to five separate factors (Rafky, 1975;Regoli, 1977).…”

“…The measurement of police cynicism has varied greatly over time (Bennett & Schmitt, 2002) with scholars investigating the validity and reliability of Niederhoffer's scale and variations thereof (Anson, Mann, & Sherman, 1986;Langworthy, 1987;Rafky, 1975;Regoli, 1976). Regoli's (1976) analysis in particular provided much of the impetus for subsequent validation research.…”

The Development and Testing of a Measure of Skepticism Toward Environmental Claims in Marketers' Communications

“…The first study involved item development and reliability assessment. An initial set of thirteen items (see Table 1) was developed based on the conceptualization of skepticism by examining and adapting items used by others to measure skepticism toward specific claims (Ford, Smith andSwasy 1986, 1990;Darley and Smith 1993), consumers' sentiment toward businesslmarketing (Gaski and Etzel 1986;Lundstrom and Lamont 1976), and cynicism (Anson, Mann, and Sherman 1986;Kanter 1989;Kanter and Mirvis 1989). The resulting set of thirteen items was administered to a student sample (n= 101) for initial evaluation.…”

“…Although these terms are often used interchangeably, skepticism is conceptually distinct from cynicism. Cynicism is often viewed as an enduring disbelief of others that occurs when people are seen as acting solely based on selfish motives (Anson, Mann and Sherman 1986). Pollay (1986) describes cynicism as a long-term social consequence of advertising.…”

Can consumers' scepticism be mitigated by claim objectivity and claim extremity?

“…For instance, Ford et al (1990) and Darley and Smith (1993) each used two items for measuring scepticism: how truthful an advertisement is and how sceptical the consumer is about the truth of an advertisement. With speci c focus on scepticism towards environmental claims, Mohr et al (1998) developed and tested an initial set of 13 items by examining and adapting items used by others for measuring scepticism towards speci c claims (Ford et al, 1986(Ford et al, , 1990Darley and Smith, 1993) and consumers' sentiments towards business/marketing (Lindstrom and Lamont, 1976;Gaski and Etzel, 1986) as well as cynicism (Anson et al, 1986;Kanter, 1989;Kanter and Mirvis, 1989). Mohr et al (1998) derived a four-item scale that best captured consumers' scepticism towards environmental claims made in advertising using factor analysis.…”