The darkest side of trust: validating the generalized communication suspicion scale with prison inmates

Reliability and validity of the Generalized Communication Suspicion scale (GCS; Levine & McCornack, 1991) was tested in this research with prisoners who participated in three studies (N = 207, ages 18–84). Convergent validity was assessed using Interpersonal Trust (Rotter, 1967) and Locus of Control scales (Paulhus & Van Selst, 1990). Divergent validity was tested using Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale (1965), and a hypothetically-unrelated prisoner’s self-rating of overall health. Trichotomized GCS on lie-bias did not substantiate predictive utility of the scale. Further studies could include a design that incorporates multiple levels of prisoner custody to better measure the predictive utility of the scale.