Understanding experiential and subjective truth: Development and validation of the ‘Youniversalism’ scale

Increasing numbers of people rely on intuitive judgments over empirical facts. Intuitive epistemology captures this attitude in two distinct aspects: “Truth is experiential” – one can feel what is true – and “Truth is subjective” – one's own construction of truth is as valuable as perceptions of truth developed by others. However, operationalizations of this largely theoretical construct are lacking. In four studies ( N = 1587), we developed and validated the Youniversalism scale to empirically capture experiential and subjective truth. The first three studies examined a multitude of items in exploratory factor analyses to find the optimal number of items and factors to capture the construct. The final study confirmed a two-factor structure of the scale, tested its association with related scales, and its predictive validity. The final scale consists of nine items with high internal consistency and two moderately correlated factors. Youniversalism shows modest associations with established intuition-related scales and accounts for unique variance in distrust in science and spirituality when considered alongside related constructs. Therefore, Youniversalism captures individual differences in intuitive epistemology, helping to better comprehend people's understanding of truth and how it relates to distrust in science. Future work should further examine Youniversalism's predictive validity, its utility for understanding general post-truth phenomena and the scale's validity in culturally diverse samples. • In four studies ( N = 1587), we created and validated the Youniversalism scale • Youniversalism measures the belief in a subjective and experiential truth • The scale operationalizes intuitive epistemology in 9 items and 2 core factors • Youniversalism correlates with reliance on intuition and spirituality • The Youniversalism scale adds explanatory value in relation to spirituality and distrust in science