Abstract
Paranoia is associated with difficulties in revising initial interpretations of social situations, a phenomenon that may help explain resistance of paranoid thoughts to modification by experience. But what leads individuals with paranoia to become suspicious of newly encountered others? The present study examined the relationship between paranoia and social impression formation for characters who varied in degree of familiarity and according to emotional valence of prior encounters. The study utilized the Interpretation Inflexibility Task (IIT) to measure social interpretation bias and inflexibility, followed by examining the social impression of the IIT characters and the novel ones. Participants from the general population (N = 213) overall responded more favorably to previously seen characters – with or without recognizing them as having appeared before – and to characters from scenarios with positive outcomes. However, these effects were absent in participants with higher paranoia, who rated characters more negatively regardless of prior exposure, recognition, or valence of scenario outcome. This pattern suggests that a pronounced negativity bias among individuals with paranoia likely plays an integral role in initial impression formation.
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None of the results reported in this manuscript have been published in any other journal, and none are under review by any journal. The data have not been used in prior published or in press manuscripts. The treatment of human participants was in accordance with the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association. All authors agree to the authorship order and content of the manuscript. We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
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Our findings highlight the importance of modifying negative social interpretations in paranoia by connecting the scenario-based belief inflexibility with a negativity bias in impression formation. The blunted mere exposure effect in individuals with high paranoia accentuates the importance of social skills training, especially in early interventions that aim at improving social functional outcomes.
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Deng, W., Joormann, J. & Cannon, T. Interpretation inflexibility and negative social impression in paranoia. Curr Psychol 42, 29090–29099 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04003-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04003-z