An exploration of exaggerated fears of identity theft in hoarding disorder

Individuals with hoarding symptoms often report laborious routines of reviewing and destroying paperwork prior to discarding, citing fears of identity theft if personal information is discarded. While fears of identity theft seem likely to be elevated in hoarding disorder, it is unclear if these fears are elevated beyond what is normative for older adults, and whether such fears may be related to third factors.

In the current study we sought to explore whether fears of identity theft were higher among 103 individuals high in hoarding symptoms as compared with 59 non-hoarding controls. We also sought to examine whether higher fears of identity theft were attributable to third factors such as increased past exposure to identity theft victimization, respondent age, race, or higher perfectionism scale scores.

Findings suggested that individuals in the hoarding group reported higher fears of identity theft, and higher rates of knowing individuals who had been victimized, but did not report significantly higher history of personal victimization. Other variables such as age, perfectionism subscale scores, and co-occurring anxiety and depression symptoms did not appear to explain the relationship between hoarding and increased fears of identity theft, suggesting it may have some specificity to hoarding.