Call to action on social cognition measures in clinical research

To describe current practices and key barriers in social cognition (SC) assessment, given its central role in psychiatric and neurological disorders and the limitations of existing measures.

Fifty-two SC experts from 20 countries completed an online survey regarding SC tests and questions about their usage frequency and perceived obstacles.

Only facial emotion recognition tasks were used frequently, while the Hinting task and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) were used by over half of participants. However, 10 experts also urged discontinuation of RMET, mostly due to validity concerns. Major obstacles included lack of culture-appropriate norms and poor psychometric properties.

SC assessment is limited by cultural bias and weak psychometrics. Developing and validating culturally sensitive tools, harmonizing protocols, and securing funding are essential to advance research, enable international trials, and improve clinical outcomes.