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Processing of threat-related affect is delayed in delusion-prone individuals
M J Green1, L M Williams, D J Davidson
1Department of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown NSW 2006, Australia. melissag@psych.usyd.edu.au
Objectives:
On the basis of previous reports of an attentional bias for threat-related emotional material in deluded schizophrenics (e.g. Bentall & Kaney, 1989), the present study examined the proposal that a similar bias would be demonstrated by delusion-prone individuals, reflected by longer response latencies for the task of processing threat-related facially displayed affects (e.g. anger, fear).
Design:
A non-randomized matched group design was employed to examine the performance of delusion-prone individuals in comparison with a control group.
Methods:
50 psychiatrically healthy participants completed the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI) as an index of delusional ideation (Peters, Day, & Garety, 1996; Peters, Joseph, & Garety, 1999). Subjects were presented with a standard set of facial stimuli depicting happy, sad, neutral, fearful and angry emotion expressions (Mazurski & Bond, 1993). Reaction times for the task of identifying each type of affect were compared between groups of high and low scorers on the PDI.
Results:
Highly delusion-prone individuals displayed a significant delay in processing angry facial expressions in comparison with low scorers on the PDI.
Conclusions:
The increased response latency for processing angry expressions was interpreted as evidence of attentional bias for material posing a threat to the self, supporting previous cognitive data in relation to deluded patients. Threatening facial expressions may be regarded with increased significance by delusion-prone individuals, and it is possible that this bias is involved in the formation of delusional beliefs.