Political Beliefs Questionnaire: Psychometric properties

The goal of this article is to present the psychometric properties of the Political Beliefs Questionnaire. It consists of four subdimensions: religious fundamentalism and xenophobia, which form the dimension of cultural beliefs; and acceptance of capitalism and anti-welfare, which form the dimension of economic beliefs. We present evidence for the validity of the questionnaire in identifying political beliefs on the rightleft dimension. Analyses were performed on a set of multiple samples (total N = 1673). Evidence for the theoretical validity was provided by confirmatory factor analysis, correlations with other - conceptually related - constructs, and a moderation of the strength and direction of the correlation between the cultural and economic beliefs dimensions by political sophistication. Concurrent validity of the questionnaire has been demonstrated based on the criterion of declared voting choices. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated based on a measure of homogeneity and absolute stability. The results indicate the good psychometric properties of Political Beliefs Questionnaire. peerReviewed publishedVersion