ArticlePloS one2025
Epistemic Trust, Mistrust and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ) validation in French language: Exploring links to loneliness.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Replicability or revision? Further evidence on the psychometric quality of the German version of the epistemic trust, mistrust and credulity questionnaire.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Can we trust this short scale? Validation of a Brief Self-Report Measure of Epistemic Trust, Mistrust and Credulity (ETMCQ-R-6) in a sample of the U.K. general population.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Development and validation of the Revised Epistemic Trust, Mistrust and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ-R).BJPsych open · 2025Article
- The role of epistemic trust and epistemic disruption in vaccine hesitancy, conspiracy thinking and the capacity to identify fake news.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Validation of the Argentine version of the epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity questionnaire.PloS one · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The concept of epistemic trust is gaining traction in the mental health field. Epistemic trust is thought to play a foundational role as a resilience factor against the development and maintenance of psychopathology by fostering social learning. The primary aim of this study was to validate the French-language version of the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ). We further sought to replicate previously reported associations with key developmental and psychological factors (childhood trauma, mentalizing and attachment) and test for epistemic trust's potential mediating roles between childhood traumatic experiences and psychopathology, and between loneliness and psychopathology. A total of 302 participants were recruited via the online survey platform Prolific. Confirmatory factor analysis and generalized linear models of mediation were conducted. Our findings suggest that the ETMCQ is a valid instrument to assess epistemic trust in the French language. Satisfactory psychometric properties were found to replicate the original three-factor solution in a Francophone population with a 12-item version of the questionnaire, with criterion-related validity similar to that previously published in validations of the ETMCQ in other languages. We also replicate previous findings reporting differential associations between epistemic stances (trust, mistrust and credulity) and attachment dimensions and styles, while also replicating mediation analyses showing the role of epistemic stances in the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and psychopathology. Finally, we report preliminary evidence suggesting that epistemic trust mediates the well-described association between loneliness and psychopathology. Future research should investigate the ETMCQ in clinical populations in which psychopathological expressions are severe, enduring and co-occurring, where identifying potential mediators could help target and personalize psychosocial interventions.
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