Navigation auf zora.uzh.ch

Search ZORA

ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive)

Inflexible social inference in individuals with subclinical persecutory delusional tendencies

Wellstein, Katharina V; Diaconescu, Andreea Oliviana; Bischof, Martin; Rüesch, Annia; Paolini, Gina; Aponte, Eduardo A; Ullrich, Johannes; Stephan, Klaas Enno (2020). Inflexible social inference in individuals with subclinical persecutory delusional tendencies. Schizophrenia Research, 215:344-351.

Abstract

It has been suspected that abnormalities in social inference (e.g., learning others' intentions) play a key role in the formation of persecutory delusions (PD). In this study, we examined the association between subclinical PD and social inference, testing the prediction that proneness to PD is related to altered social inference and beliefs about others' intentions. We included 151 participants scoring on opposite ends of Freeman's Paranoia Checklist (PCL). The participants performed a probabilistic advice-taking task with a dynamically changing social context (volatility) under one of two experimental frames. These frames differentially emphasised possible reasons behind unhelpful advice: (i) the adviser's possible intentions (dispositional frame) or (ii) the rules of the game (situational frame). Our design was thus 2 × 2 factorial (high vs. low delusional tendencies, dispositional vs. situational frame). We found significant group-by-frame interactions, indicating that in the situational frame high PCL scorers took advice less into account than low scorers. Additionally, high PCL scorers believed more frequently that incorrect advice was delivered intentionally and that such misleading behaviour was directed towards them personally. Overall, our results suggest that social inference in individuals with subclinical PD tendencies is shaped by negative prior beliefs about the intentions of others and is thus less sensitive to the attributional framing of adviser-related information. These findings may help future attempts of identifying individuals at risk for developing psychosis and understanding persecutory delusions in psychosis.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:04 Faculty of Medicine > Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich > Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics
06 Faculty of Arts > Institute of Psychology
04 Faculty of Medicine > Institute of Biomedical Engineering
Dewey Decimal Classification:150 Psychology
Scopus Subject Areas:Health Sciences > Psychiatry and Mental Health
Life Sciences > Biological Psychiatry
Language:English
Date:1 January 2020
Deposited On:19 Sep 2019 11:50
Last Modified:22 Oct 2024 01:35
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0920-9964
OA Status:Hybrid
Free access at:Publisher DOI. An embargo period may apply.
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.08.031
Related URLs:https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/174631/
PubMed ID:31495701
Project Information:
  • Funder: René and Susanne Braginsky Foundation
  • Grant ID:
  • Project Title:
  • Funder: SNSF
  • Grant ID: PZ00P3_167952
  • Project Title: Neurocomputational Modelling of Delusions and its Clinical Utility for Psychosis
Download PDF  'Inflexible social inference in individuals with subclinical persecutory delusional tendencies'.
Preview
  • Content: Published Version
  • Language: English
  • Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Metadata Export

Statistics

Citations

Dimensions.ai Metrics
16 citations in Web of Science®
19 citations in Scopus®
Google Scholar™

Altmetrics

Downloads

50 downloads since deposited on 19 Sep 2019
10 downloads since 12 months
Detailed statistics

Authors, Affiliations, Collaborations

Similar Publications