Visualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoia
Abstract Predictive processing accounts of psychosis conceptualize delusions as overly strong learned expectations (prior beliefs) that shape cognition and perception. Paranoia, the most prevalent form of delusions, involves threat prior beliefs that are inherently social. Here, we investigated whet...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Schizophrenia |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-024-00459-z |
| _version_ | 1797247174510116864 |
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| author | Antonia Bott Hanna C. Steer Julian L. Faße Tania M. Lincoln |
| author_facet | Antonia Bott Hanna C. Steer Julian L. Faße Tania M. Lincoln |
| author_sort | Antonia Bott |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Predictive processing accounts of psychosis conceptualize delusions as overly strong learned expectations (prior beliefs) that shape cognition and perception. Paranoia, the most prevalent form of delusions, involves threat prior beliefs that are inherently social. Here, we investigated whether paranoia is related to overly strong threat prior beliefs in face perception. Participants with subclinical levels of high (n = 109) versus low (n = 111) paranoia viewed face stimuli paired with written descriptions of threatening versus trustworthy behaviors, thereby activating their threat versus trustworthiness prior beliefs. Subsequently, they completed an established social-psychological reverse correlation image classification (RCIC) paradigm. This paradigm used participants’ responses to randomly varying face stimuli to generate individual classification images (ICIs) that intend to visualize either facial prior belief (threat vs. trust). An independent sample (n = 76) rated these ICIs as more threatening in the threat compared to the trust condition, validating the causal effect of prior beliefs on face perception. Contrary to expectations derived from predictive processing accounts, there was no evidence for a main effect of paranoia. This finding suggests that paranoia was not related to stronger threat prior beliefs that directly affected face perception, challenging the assumption that paranoid beliefs operate on a perceptual level. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T19:54:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-02253cdf57464d44b349c50741ccf255 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2754-6993 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T19:54:30Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Schizophrenia |
| spelling | doaj.art-02253cdf57464d44b349c50741ccf2552024-03-24T12:23:54ZengNature PortfolioSchizophrenia2754-69932024-03-011011810.1038/s41537-024-00459-zVisualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoiaAntonia Bott0Hanna C. Steer1Julian L. Faße2Tania M. Lincoln3Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität HamburgClinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität HamburgClinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität HamburgClinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität HamburgAbstract Predictive processing accounts of psychosis conceptualize delusions as overly strong learned expectations (prior beliefs) that shape cognition and perception. Paranoia, the most prevalent form of delusions, involves threat prior beliefs that are inherently social. Here, we investigated whether paranoia is related to overly strong threat prior beliefs in face perception. Participants with subclinical levels of high (n = 109) versus low (n = 111) paranoia viewed face stimuli paired with written descriptions of threatening versus trustworthy behaviors, thereby activating their threat versus trustworthiness prior beliefs. Subsequently, they completed an established social-psychological reverse correlation image classification (RCIC) paradigm. This paradigm used participants’ responses to randomly varying face stimuli to generate individual classification images (ICIs) that intend to visualize either facial prior belief (threat vs. trust). An independent sample (n = 76) rated these ICIs as more threatening in the threat compared to the trust condition, validating the causal effect of prior beliefs on face perception. Contrary to expectations derived from predictive processing accounts, there was no evidence for a main effect of paranoia. This finding suggests that paranoia was not related to stronger threat prior beliefs that directly affected face perception, challenging the assumption that paranoid beliefs operate on a perceptual level.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-024-00459-z |
| spellingShingle | Antonia Bott Hanna C. Steer Julian L. Faße Tania M. Lincoln Visualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoia Schizophrenia |
| title | Visualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoia |
| title_full | Visualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoia |
| title_fullStr | Visualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoia |
| title_short | Visualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoia |
| title_sort | visualizing threat and trustworthiness prior beliefs in face perception in high versus low paranoia |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-024-00459-z |
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