Conflict and cooperation in paranoia: a large-scale behavioural experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Paranoia involves thoughts and beliefs about the harmful intent of others but the social consequences have been much less studied. We investigated whether paranoia predicts maladaptive social behaviour in terms of cooperative and punitive behaviour using experimental game theory paradigms, and examined whether reduced cooperation is best explained in terms of distrust as previous studies have claimed.

Methods

We recruited a large population sample (N = 2132) online. All participants completed the Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale and (i) a Dictator Game and (ii) an Ultimatum Game, the former with an option for costly punishment. Following distrust-based accounts, we predicted highly paranoid people would make higher offers when the outcome depended on receiving

SUBMITTER: Raihani NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6088528 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature