Measuring Misophonia: Assessing the Psychometric Properties of the MisoQuest and Its Ability to Predict Cognitive Impacts of Triggering Sounds.

Objectives: Misophonia is characterized by an aversion to specific sounds, such as chewing and breathing. These "trigger" sounds can elicit negative emotional reactions, physiological stress, and cognitive impairments in people with misophonia. Despite its impact, misophonia lacks formal diagnostic classification, largely due to challenges in conceptualization and assessment. One of the few psychometrically robust self-report measures for misophonia (the MisoQuest) was originally developed and evaluated in Polish. The current study evaluated the utility of the English language version of the MisoQuest, including assessment of its criterion validity using cognitive performance as an outcome.

Methods: A total of 139 participants (44 people with misophonia and 95 controls) completed the MisoQuest, the Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome Scale (S-Five), the Generalized Anxiety Disorders Scale, and the Sensory Hypersensitivity Scale. Participants then completed either a Stroop task or reading comprehension task in the presence/absence of triggering sounds. A subset of participants retook the MisoQuest after 5 weeks.

Results: The MisoQuest showed excellent internal consistency and strong test-retest reliability. Additionally, MisoQuest scores strongly correlated with S-Five scores, supporting convergent validity, and moderately correlated with measures of generalized anxiety and sensory hypersensitivity, indicating some overlap while supporting discriminant validity. Higher MisoQuest scores predicted poorer reading comprehension performance when trigger sounds were present, supporting criterion validity. However, MisoQuest scores showed no significant relationship with Stroop task performance.

Conclusion: These findings support the MisoQuest as a reliable and useful measure of misophonia in English-speaking individuals and suggest its scores may relate to clinically relevant outcomes.