Development and Validation of Belief in Evil Eye Scale

Abstract

Belief in the evil eye remains widespread in South Asia and other countries. The effects of the evil eye have been associated with misfortunes and various other physical and psychological symptoms. Addressing these symptoms in a clinical milieu, we developed an instrument called the Belief in Evil Eye Scale (BEES) using four Muslim sects. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with 300 participants revealed six factors of the scale, however, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with a larger sample of 404 participants reduced these factors to five: Evil Eye Effects (EEE), Evil Eye Indicators (EEI), Warding off Evil Eye (WEE), Preventive Beliefs (PB), and Casters of Evil Eye (CEE). With yet another sample (N = 316), acceptable convergent validities were assessed with the Paranormal and Supernatural Belief Scale (PSBS) and Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS), and acceptable discriminant validities with Moral Identity Measure (MIM) and Narcissistic Personality Inventory-16 (NPI-16). We think BEES is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing many beliefs about the evil eye in Pakistani culture and can be useful for clinicians who help clients with beliefs about the evil eye.