The SciPop Scale for Measuring Science-Related Populist Attitudes in Surveys: Development, Test, and Validation

Abstract

Populism typically pits political elites against "the virtuous people."A distinct variant of populism ("science-related populism") extends beyond politics, targeting academic elites and suggesting they ignore people's common sense and will. Individual endorsement of such a worldview ("science-related populist attitudes") has been conceptualized but not yet measured. Hence, we developed the SciPop Scale, a survey instrument to measure science-related populist attitudes. We tested 17 survey items in a first representative survey and developed an 8-item scale. We then tested German, French, and Italian versions of this scale in a second representative survey, employing confirmatory factor analysis, Item Response Theory, and external validity tests. Findings show that the SciPop Scale is a robust and reliable measure of populist demands toward science.