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Loneliness and Current Environmental Context Are Associated With False Perceptions Regarding Social Relations
Phil Reed1, Sherlyn Tshering, Siti Wahab
1Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
|August 16, 2021
Summary
Loneliness distorts perception, increasing lonely false perceptions, especially in lonely contexts. This effect persists even when controlling for anxiety, depression, and schizotypy.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Loneliness is linked to negative health outcomes like anxiety and depression.
- Its association with cognitive distortions, such as false perceptions, is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how loneliness and environmental context influence the content of false perceptions.
- To determine if loneliness distorts cognition independently of anxiety, depression, and schizotypy.
Main Methods:
- 446 participants completed psychometric tests (UCLA Loneliness Scale, HADS, Schizotypy Scale).
- A word detection task assessed false perceptions in lonely, neutral, and positive social contexts.
Main Results:
- Higher loneliness correlated with more lonely false perceptions.
- This effect was significant only within lonely contexts.
- Findings held true when controlling for depression, anxiety, and schizotypy.
Conclusions:
- An individual's psychological state and current context interact to shape false perception content.
- Loneliness significantly distorts cognition and perception, independent of other psychological factors.
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