News Finding: We believe our findings could shed light on why paranoia is more common in those who are struggling on the social ladder and excluded by society," she added.
Paper Finding: Our study also raises questions about whether paranoia depends on qualitatively different social reasoning or instead reflects typical social information processing with a lower threshold for social threat detection.
News Context: "Intense paranoia is also a symptom of mental ill health, and is more common among people who perceive themselves to have low social rank. We believe our findings could shed light on why paranoia is more common in those who are struggling on the social ladder and excluded by society," she added. People who were paired with someone with a higher social status or with different political beliefs more frequently assumed their partner's decision had been motivated by wanting to cause them harm.
Paper Context: Ideally, future studies would challenge this hypothesis with other salient group affiliations. Our study also raises questions about whether paranoia depends on qualitatively different social reasoning or instead reflects typical social information processing with a lower threshold for social threat detection. ), suggesting that harmful intent attributions should become increasingly out of proportion as pre-existing paranoia increases.