Obsessive-compulsive-like reasoning makes an unlikely catastrophe more credible

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Psychopathology

Background:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by repetitive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.
• Patients often engage in

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if OC-like perseverative reasoning increases the credibility of improbable catastrophic outcomes.
• To examine the effect of generating multiple reasoning chains on outcome credibility and uncertainty.
• To explore the role of perseverative reasoning in maintaining OCD.

Main Methods:

• 63 healthy undergraduates participated in an experiment.
• Participants rated the credibility and uncertainty of a negative outcome before and after a task.
• Experimental groups generated one or five series of intermediate steps; a control group performed a filler task.

Main Results:

• Perseverative reasoning significantly enhanced the credibility of the improbable negative outcome.
• No significant difference in credibility or uncertainty was found between generating one or five reasoning chains.
• Perseverative reasoning did not increase feelings of uncertainty about the outcome.

Conclusions:

• OC-like perseverative reasoning can increase the perceived likelihood of feared catastrophic outcomes.
• This cognitive process may contribute to the maintenance and exacerbation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• The number of reasoning chains generated did not modulate the effect on outcome credibility or uncertainty.