Paranoid Ideation and Social Anxiety in Undergraduates and Clinical Populations.

Abstract

Recent research suggests that paranoia, like other psychiatric symptoms, may exist on a continuum with normal experiences. What pushes people from the normal to the severe end of the continuum has yet to be determined. Theoretical models of paranoia place importance on negative emotion, especially social anxieties, and cognitive reasoning biases. To fully understand the differences in paranoid ideation in non-clinical and schizophrenia populations, more information is needed regarding the causal mechanisms. Experimental paradigms provide the mechanism to test potential pathways through which persecutory ideation can develop. The goal of this study is to reveal mechanisms that may contribute to increases in paranoid ideation by experimentally manipulating fear and by identifying other potential individual factors. A sample of 253 undergraduates was randomly assigned to a neutral or fearful experimental emotion induction. In both conditions, the presence of self-referential thoughts and persecutory ideation was assessed. Following the induction, participants completed ratings of self-referential and persecutory ideation and additional measures of social anxiety, general anxiety, depression and cognitive reasoning biases. These responses were compared to the level of self-referential and persecutory ideation in a sample of 46 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia who completed self-report ratings of self-referential and persecutory ideation, general anxiety and depression but did not participate in the emotion induction. We found that the fear manipulation increased persecutory and self-referential thoughts in undergraduates. Further, social anxiety and cognitive reasoning biases were related to increases in persecutory ideation, such that the undergraduate group who were high in social anxiety or cognitive biases at baseline had paranoia at equivalent level as the schizophrenia group following emotion induction. This study provides evidence that ideas of reference and persecutory thoughts are not confined to individuals diagnosed with psychotic disorders as they can be enhanced by fear in individuals high on social anxiety and cognitive biases. Together, the results suggest that fearful states, cognitive biases and social anxiety are potential mechanisms for increases in paranoid thought.