Paranoia Test (R-GPTS): See Where Your Everyday Mistrust Falls on the R-GPTS Scale
This paranoia test screens for thoughts of being noticed or harmed using questions adapted from the R-GPTS. Get instant scores for reflection and discussion with a clinician; the result is not a diagnosis.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Paranoia Test (R-GPTS) is a free, confidential 18-question self-assessment, based on the validated R-GPTS. It takes about 8 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 4 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Paranoia is a spectrum, and most of it is ordinary
Paranoid thinking involves interpreting other people's attention or intentions as personally threatening. This self-assessment explores feeling singled out and fearing deliberate harm. Your answers describe your experiences; they cannot establish another person's intentions, confirm a threat, or determine whether you have a mental health condition.
Ideas of reference
The ideas of reference questions explore feeling watched, discussed, laughed about, or singled out. A higher score reflects stronger endorsement of these experiences during the past month. The score does not show whether other people were actually talking about you.
Ideas of persecution
The ideas of persecution questions explore thoughts that other people intend harm, including how distressing or difficult to set aside those thoughts feel. The original scale has published clinical benchmarks, which require careful interpretation and cannot verify that someone intends to hurt you.
Where you sit on the spectrum
Your result describes the experiences you endorsed across the reference and persecution subscales. The overall bands are descriptive groupings created for this page. Published findings for the original R-GPTS do not establish diagnostic accuracy for this adapted wording or its combined result.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Based on a validated scale (R-GPTS) | Rarely | Yes, faithful to the items |
| Real two-part structure (reference / persecution) | No | Yes, both subscales |
| Published severity benchmarks explained | No | Yes, from the validation study |
| Normalizing, spectrum-based framing | Rarely | Yes, throughout |
| Clinician-reviewed interpretation | Rarely | Yes, reviewed |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Confidential (no data sent) | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–72 in total. Your result falls into one of 4 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–18 | Within the common range | Your overall level of paranoid thinking over the past month falls where most of the general population sits. Some suspicious thoughts are a normal part of a mind that watches out for you. |
| 19–34 | Elevated paranoid thinking | You reported more paranoid thoughts than average over the past month. Many people pass through this range during stressful chapters, and it is worth paying attention to what is feeding it. |
| 35–54 | Moderately high paranoid thinking | You reported a substantial level of paranoid thinking over the past month. This is worth taking seriously and gently, because thinking like this is exhausting to live with and it responds to treatment. |
| 55–72 | High paranoid thinking | You reported a very high level of paranoid thinking over the past month. However heavy this feels right now, this pattern is understood, treatable, and worth bringing to a professional soon. |
Paranoia test versus paranoid personality disorder
This paranoia test measures paranoid thinking as a state, something that can rise and fall over weeks depending on stress, sleep, and circumstances. Paranoid personality disorder is a different question: a fixed, long-standing pattern of distrust that shapes how someone relates to almost everyone, present since early adulthood and across most situations, not just a rough month. A high score here says something about the past month, not about your personality as a whole.
If longstanding mistrust and strain in relationships feel like the bigger question behind your answers, the Personality Disorder Test is built for that broader pattern, and only a clinician can make either diagnosis. Persecutory thinking also overlaps with narrower experiences worth naming separately: frequent mistrust of people close to you fits more naturally under the Trust Issues Test, while intense self-consciousness about being watched or judged in social situations overlaps with the Social Anxiety Test. Taking the more specific one can point you toward a clearer next step than a single paranoia score can.
Who takes a paranoia screening like this
People come to this test for different reasons. Some notice a new pattern of suspicion after a hard breakup, a job loss, or a stretch of isolation, and want a way to put a number on it. Others are checking whether unusual thoughts, like sensing hidden meanings in ordinary events or worrying a device is monitoring them, warrant a closer look. Both are reasonable uses of a short screening, and it works for anyone curious where their thinking sits on the spectrum, not only people already worried about a diagnosis. The paranoia questions here cover two different things, feeling singled out and fearing deliberate harm, so most everyday suspicious thoughts fit somewhere in the two parts.
If a friend or partner has raised concerns about how suspicious you have seemed lately, this is also a fair, low-pressure way to check your own read on it before a bigger conversation. If unusual perceptual experiences come with the suspicion, the Psychosis & Schizophrenia Screening is the more specific tool, and either result is worth sharing with a doctor or with someone from the Psychology.com therapist directory rather than sitting with alone.
How to interpret your R-GPTS screening scores
Read the reference and persecution scores separately. The original R-GPTS research recommends a persecution score of 11 as a threshold for clinical levels of persecutory thinking and 18 as a threshold warranting assessment for a possible persecutory delusion. These are research thresholds for the original instrument, not diagnoses. A clinician needs to understand your circumstances and how firmly you hold a belief.
This page adapts some wording and uses its own combined score bands. Its displayed overall labels should not be treated as the original scale's clinical categories, and the persecution benchmark labels shown in the result do not fully match the published categories. Bring the actual subscale scores and examples of your experiences to a clinician rather than relying on a severity label. A low score also does not cancel out distress or a need for support.
When suspicious thoughts need prompt professional attention
Seek professional help when suspicious thoughts persist, intensify, or interfere with sleep, relationships, self-care, or daily tasks. Hearing or seeing things other people do not, confused thinking, or difficulty deciding what is real are reasons to contact a health care provider promptly. You do not need to finish another test before asking for help.
If you feel overwhelmed while arranging support, Grounding Techniques offers an optional way to focus on your immediate surroundings. It cannot assess a threat or replace clinical care. The Psychology.com tests hub can help you find the related screenings mentioned above. If you are in emotional crisis in the United States, call or text 988. If there is immediate danger, contact emergency services.
Methodology & sources
The eighteen questions are adapted from the Revised Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS), developed by Freeman and colleagues and published in Psychological Medicine in 2021. Part A measures ideas of reference (eight items, scored 0 to 32) and Part B measures ideas of persecution (ten items, scored 0 to 40), each rated for the past month from 0 (not at all) to 4 (totally). Some statements on this page differ from the published questionnaire. The original validation therefore does not establish equivalent accuracy for this adaptation. Its published severity categories apply to separate subscales, and the combined result on this page should be read as an educational summary.
The overall bands on this page combine the two subscales for readability; they are descriptive groupings, not validated cutoffs, since the R-GPTS benchmarks apply to the subscales themselves. Two framing points matter. First, paranoia exists on a spectrum in the general population, and epidemiological research finds that occasional paranoid thoughts are common, especially under stress, sleep loss, or social threat; they do not by themselves indicate psychosis. Second, a high score is a signal worth taking seriously, gently: persecutory thinking that is frequent, distressing, or hard to shake can be discussed with a clinician who can recommend care suited to the underlying difficulties, and only a qualified clinician can assess what is behind it.
References
- Freeman D, Loe BS, Kingdon D, et al. The revised Green et al., Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS): psychometric properties, severity ranges, and clinical cut-offs. Psychol Med. 2021;51(2):244-253. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7893506/
- Green CE, Freeman D, Kuipers E, et al. Measuring ideas of persecution and social reference: the Green et al. Paranoid Thought Scales (GPTS). Psychol Med. 2008;38(1):101-111.
- Freeman D. Suspicious minds: the psychology of persecutory delusions. Clin Psychol Rev. 2007;27(4):425-457.
- Bebbington PE, McBride O, Steel C, et al. The structure of paranoia in the general population. Br J Psychiatry. 2013;202(6):419-427.
- National Institute of Mental Health. Understanding Psychosis. nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/understanding-psychosis
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 27). Paranoia Test (R-GPTS). Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/paranoia
Paranoia Test (R-GPTS) FAQ
What is a paranoia test?
It is a short, research-based questionnaire that measures paranoid thinking over the past month across two areas: ideas of reference, like feeling watched or talked about, and ideas of persecution, like believing people intend you harm. This one adapts questions from the R-GPTS, a scale studied in clinical and general population samples. It is a screening for reflection, not a diagnosis.
Do paranoid thoughts mean I am psychotic?
No. Paranoid thoughts sit on a spectrum, and population studies find that occasional suspiciousness, feeling watched, or sensing hostility are common experiences, especially under stress, poor sleep, isolation, or after being genuinely mistreated. Psychosis involves much more than a suspicious thought, and it is assessed by a clinician, never by a questionnaire. If you are also noticing experiences like hearing things others do not, our psychosis risk screening covers that separate ground.
What is the R-GPTS?
The Revised Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale is a validated measure of paranoid thinking published by Freeman and colleagues in 2021. It refined the original 2008 GPTS into two parts, ideas of reference and ideas of persecution, and published severity ranges from average to severe, so the same instrument works for the general population and clinical settings. It is one of the most widely used paranoia measures in modern research.
What counts as a high score?
On the original R-GPTS persecution subscale, the validation study recommends 11 as a threshold for clinical levels of persecutory thinking and 18 as a threshold for assessment of a possible persecutory delusion. This page adapts the wording and uses descriptive overall bands. Those bands cannot establish a diagnosis. Discuss distressing thoughts with a clinician regardless of your score, especially if they interfere with daily life.
Can paranoid thinking be treated?
Support is available for distressing suspicious thoughts. A clinician can assess the experiences, sleep, substance use, medications, and other health factors before recommending care. Treatment may include psychological therapy and, depending on the assessment, medication or coordinated support. The right approach depends on what is contributing to the thoughts. You can ask for help even when you are unsure how to describe your experience or whether the word paranoia fits.
What kind of paranoia questions does this test ask?
The paranoia questions on this test are adapted from the R-GPTS and split into two groups: eight items about ideas of reference, things like feeling watched, discussed, or laughed about, and ten items about ideas of persecution, like believing someone means you harm. Each one asks how true it felt over the past month, from not at all to totally, and your answers are scored for reflection, never used to diagnose you.
Is this test really confidential?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser. Your individual answers are scored in your browser and are never sent to us or linked to you. They stay in this tab so you can return to your result, and closing or clearing the tab clears them. If you ask us to email the PDF, we receive your summary scores with your email address, never your individual answers. No account is needed.
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