[Everyday suspicion: our life is delusional]

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Suspicious thinking, while sometimes adaptive, can be linked to various psychological and neurobiological factors.
• Paranoia exists on a spectrum, from mild suspicion to severe delusions, influenced by mechanisms like projection, dopamine activity, and cognitive biases.
• Recent research focuses on identifying subclinical paranoid thoughts in the general population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the prevalence and characteristics of subclinical paranoid thoughts in nonclinical samples.
• To explore the spectrum of suspicious thinking from mild to severe forms.
• To understand the contributing factors and mechanisms underlying paranoia.

Main Methods:

• Utilized screening methods such as delusion inventories and psychometric tests.
• Employed virtual reality laboratories for experimental assessment.
• Analyzed the spectrum of thinking styles, including worrying, salience attribution, and overvalued ideas.

Main Results:

• Suspicious and mistrustful ideations are common in nonclinical populations.
• Subclinical paranoid thoughts can be comparable in nature to those observed in clinical patient populations.
• A hierarchical 'paranoia pyramid' model describes the phenomenon from mild to severe forms.

Conclusions:

• Subclinical paranoid thinking is a prevalent phenomenon in the general population.
• The spectrum of paranoia, including milder forms, warrants further investigation.
• Everyday paranoid thinking styles suggest a potential for 'delusional' aspects in ordinary life.