Replicability or revision? Further evidence on the psychometric quality of the German version of the epistemic trust, mistrust and credulity questionnaire

BACKGROUND: The Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ) assesses individual differences in epistemic stances. Although widely used, its German translation has not yet undergone an independent psychometric evaluation. METHOD: We administered the German ETMCQ to 567 university students and performed confirmatory factor analyses to compare the original 15-item model with several published modifications to further examine psychometric properties of the instrument. We assessed model fit, convergent validity, composite reliability, and internal consistency. Nomological validity was evaluated via latent correlations with attachment insecurity, ineffective mentalizing, emotion regulation, childhood maltreatment, and mental health symptoms. RESULTS: Neither the 15-item nor the 12-item models achieved acceptable fit. Across all models tested, average variance extracted values remained below 0.50, and composite reliabilities failed to reach Jöreskog's rho ρ ≥ 0.70 for any of the three subscales. Internal consistency was marginally acceptable for the trust, mistrust, and credulity subscales. Nomological analyses revealed theory-consistent associations for mistrust and credulity but revealed weaker, divergent patterns for trust. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight psychometric limitations in the current German version of the ETMCQ in this specific population. Before broader use, we recommend comprehensive item revision, multimethod validation, and cross-language invariance testing.