Attitudes toward Surveillance: Personality, Belief and Value Correlates

Abstract

Two hundred and fifty adults completed a number of questionnaires about their attitudes to surveillance. They included measures of personality, paranoia , political cynicism, attitudes to authority, belief in conspiracy theories and the Big Five personality traits. The 25-item, surveillance scale, developed for this study, factored neatly into pro-and anti-surveillance attitudes. The strongest and most consistent correlates were attitudes to authority and political cynicism. Regressions indicated that the most powerful correlates of pro-surveillance attitudes were attitudes to authority, trait openness, conformity and right-wing authoritarianism. The most powerful anti-surveillance correlates were attitudes to authority, political cynicism, belief in conspiracy theories and paranoia. Implications and limitations of this study are considered.