Data for the Paper "Inflexible Social Inference in Individuals with Subclinical Persecutory Delusional Tendencies"


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Author / Producer

Date

2019

Publication Type

Data Collection

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

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Data

Abstract

It has long 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 who scored 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 emphasized possible reasons behind unhelpful advice: they either highlighted (i) the adviser’s possible intentions (dispositional frame) or (ii) the rules of the game (situational frame). Our design was thus 2x2 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 information related to the adviser. These findings may help future attempts of identifying individuals at risk for developing psychosis and understanding persecutory delusions in psychosis.

Publication status

External links

Editor

Contributors

Contact person : Wellstein, Katharina V.
Data collector : Wellstein, Katharina V.
Other : Aponte, Eduardo A.
Producer : Wellstein, Katharina V.
Project leader : Diaconescu, Andreea O.
Project manager : Wellstein, Katharina V.
Research group: Stephan, Klaas

Book title

Journal / series

Volume

Pages / Article No.

Publisher

ETH Zurich

Event

Edition / version

Methods

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Geographic location

Date collected

2016-06-06/2017-02-28

Date created

Subject

Organisational unit

02631 - Institut für Biomedizinische Technik / Institute for Biomedical Engineering

Notes

Funding

Related publications and datasets

Is supplement to:
Is supplement to: 10.31234/osf.io/k36q8