People with schizophrenia use less information to interpret ambiguous social situations

Abstract

Background and objectivesThe tendency of people with schizophrenia to gather insufficient information before making decisions or jumping to conclusions has been repeatedly reported. However, criticism has also been expressed regarding the ecological validity of this finding. Here we present the results obtained by a group of people with schizophrenia and a control group in a non-probabilistic task that requires obtaining items of information before interpreting an ambiguous social situation. MethodsPatients with schizophrenia (n = 48) and controls (n = 44) aged 18–50 years participated in the study. All subjects completed the Beads Task and the modified Social Information Preference Task. ResultsPatients with schizophrenia showed a statistically significant tendency to jump to conclusions, including in the proposed novel social task. Unlike other studies, we were unable to find a relationship between this bias and greater severity of psychotic symptoms. LimitationsWe did not include patients with high levels of psychotic symptoms or a clinical control group. ConclusionsThe tendency to jump to conclusions in schizophrenia could be present in everyday interpersonal situations.