Abstract
Paranoia is known to vary with levels of coalitional threat and safety present in the social environment. However, it remains underexplored whether threat and safety are differentially associated with paranoia, if these relationships vary with the source of threat and safety, and whether such effects hold across the continuum of severity of paranoid thoughts. We employed a network analysis approach with community analysis on a large dataset (n = 6,337), the UK Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007, to explore these questions. We included one node to capture paranoia typical in the general population, and one pertaining to thought interference common in persecutory delusions in psychosis. Nodes reflecting paranoia in the general population as well as persecution-related concerns in psychosis shared the strongest positive edges with nodes representing threat stemming from close social relationships. Paranoia common in the general population was negatively associated with both safety stemming from the wider social environment, and safety in close relationships, where the former association was strongest. Our results suggest that threat from within one's immediate social group is more closely linked to paranoid thoughts than is safety from either one's social group or the wider social environment. Further, our results imply that coalitional threat may be a particularly associated with concerns common in psychosis, whereas paranoid ideation more common in the general population is also associated with reduced coalitional safety. Overall, this network analysis offers a broad view of how paranoia relates to multiple aspects of our coalitional environment and provides some testable predictions for future research in this area. Individuals with paranoia more typical of delusions may find threat in close social relationships most challenging Variation in paranoia in the general population may be attributed to feeling safe in the wider social environment more than in close social relationships.
Highlights
Individuals with paranoia more typical of delusions may find threat in close social relationships most challenging
Our resulting network enabled us to explore whether the source of such cues impacts these relationships. We investigated whether these associations vary based on the nature of persecutory ideation: paranoia that is more common in the general population, compared to beliefs of thought interference that are rarer and typically present as persecutory delusions in psychosis (Spence, 2001)
Identifying items to include in the network analysis To study multiple components of coalitional psychology, we selected a long list (N = 40) of questionnaire items from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007 that we deemed pertinent to coalitional psychology, representing perception of cues of safety and threat from both close alliances and the wider social environment
Summary
Individuals with paranoia more typical of delusions may find threat in close social relationships most challenging. In a network analysis study, McElroy et al (2019) found that safety and threat in the wider social (neighbourhood) environment were associated with paranoia in the general population, but, after controlling for these measures, support from close others (‘social connectivity’) was not.
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