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Trusting to know: Validation of the epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity questionnaire in Serbia

Dunja Mićunović et al.

Psihologija2026https://doi.org/10.2298/psi250110001marticle
AJG 1
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0.50

What the paper says

Epistemic trust refers to the willingness to regard communicated knowledge as reliable, relevant, and generalizable, and has been recognized as a central factor in social learning, adaptation, and vulnerability to psychopathology. The aim of this study was to validate the epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity questionnaire (ETMCQ) in a Serbian sample and to examine its associations with sociodemographic, psychological, and social trust variables. A total of 557 adults (86% female; average age 29.9 years) completed the ETMCQ, the depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21), the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale, as well as measures of trust in social system scale and trust in science and scientists, alongside sociodemographic data. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the original three-factor structure (trust, mistrust, credulity), with satisfactory model fit indices (CFI = .933, NFI = .901, RMSEA = .055). Subscale reliabilities ranged from acceptable to good. Epistemic trust was positively associated with financial status and trust in science, while mistrust and credulity were negatively related to financial status and age. Furthermore, mistrust and credulity correlated positively with loneliness, depression, anxiety, and stress, whereas trust correlated negatively with loneliness. No significant associations were observed between epistemic trust dimensions and trust in the social system, possibly reflecting the complex socio-political context in Serbia at the time of data collection. These findings confirm the cross-cultural validity of the ETMCQ in Serbia and highlight the importance of epistemic trust and its maladaptive variants in psychological adjustment and social adaptation.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2298/psi250110001m

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@article{dunja2026,
  title        = {{Trusting to know: Validation of the epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity questionnaire in Serbia}},
  author       = {Dunja Mićunović et al.},
  journal      = {Psihologija},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2298/psi250110001m},
}

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Trusting to know: Validation of the epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity questionnaire in Serbia

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.