Negative First Impression of a Schizophrenia Patient Based on Thin Slice of Social Behavior

Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia encounter significant challenges in their daily social interactions. These deficits emphasize neurocognitive disabilities, impaired social cognition, and stigma. However, social presentation especially public perception of patients' social behavior has been poorly studied to date in this mental disorder despite the fundamental importance of first impression in human interaction. This study aims to investigate whether a schizophrenia patient leads to a lower first impression than a depressive individual and a healthy control when there is no diagnostic label, and on which features these first impressions are created. We extracted nonverbal behavioral measures from thin slice of social behaviour of the stimulus participants and presented audio and/or video clips to naive observers. We found that the general population had significantly more negative impressions and behavioral intentions to interact with the schizophrenia patient than the depressive and the control participant, regardless of the modality presented. As patients displayed fewer nonverbal behaviors, it suggests that social behavior drives first impression in schizophrenia. Such findings may lead to new ways of developing intervention programs targeting motor nonverbal behavior, leading to reduce social rejection in these populations.