delusional disorder

1. STUDY: BRITISH UNI X PRINCESS DIANA
   1. students beliefs in conspiracy theories assessed on 7 point lLIKERT SCALE
      1. if you believed in ANY ONE, you were more likely to endorse others
   2. 5 ITEMS related to Princess Diana's death
      1. If you believed it was an accident, less likely to believe in conspiracies
2. STUDY: OSAMA
   1. 0,4 correlation between "OBL is still alive" and "OBL was already dead"
      1. you can't believe both
         1. BUT, they're both mediated by "officials are engaged in cover up"
            1. take-home: conspiracies remain alive because they agree with HIGHER ORDER OF CONSPIRACY

1. personality factors
   1. distrust in authority
   2. lower self-esteem
   3. lower levels of interpersonal mistrust
   4. feeling of POWERLESSNESS
2. HIGHER AMONG BLACKS
   1. door-to-door study in Cali
      1. asked if HIV/AIDS was a man-made virus engineered to kill Black People
         1. 27% of Blacks said yes
   2. TELEPHONE SURVEY
      1. assessed HIV/AIDS beliefs on 5-point LIKERT SCALE
      2. looked at attitudes towards condoms
         1. looked at condom-use consistency
            1. looked at association of attitudes of condoms and use of condoms
               1. MEN= STRONGER CONSPIRACY BELIEFS, LESS LIKELY TO USE CONDOM
   3. 1932-1972 STUDY in Southern US
      1. looked at syphilis in Black Males
         1. gov't held treatment from them
            1. were NOT given penicilin even thought it treated it
               1. history of mistrust= BUILT
3. STUDY: undergrads + conspiracy beliefs
   1. pro-conspiracy
      1. endorsed climate change conspiracies more
         1. tended to do LESS to reduce carbon footprint
            1. take-home: conspiracy theories and behaviour relation
   2. anti-conspiracy
   3. control

1. hypervigilance, rumination
   1. activation of paranoid cognitive biases
      1. exarcebation of self-consciousnes
         1. appraisal of social situation
            1. dysphoric self-consciousness

1. 0= not present, 4= present and severe

Annotations:

• UNFOUNDED FIRMLY HELD RESISTANT TO CHANGE PREOCCUPYING DISTRESSING INTERFERES WITH SOCIAL FUNCTIONING INVOLVES PERSONAL REFERENCE

1. stable over lifetime

1. repressed homosexual tendencies
   1. ex. DANIEL SCHREBER
      1. "reaction formation"

1. how we infer what others are thinking
   1. STUDY: DD VS HEALTHY CONTROLS
      1. MORE PERSEVERATIVE ERRORS ON WCST
      2. POORLY ON TOM TASK
      3. OK IN EMOTION RECOGNITION
      4. exec. function deficits contribute to TOM deficits
      5. no cognitive flex on proverb

1. jump to conclusions
2. attributional bias

1. females
2. onset BEFORE 30
3. persecutory, somatic, erotic vs grandiose + jealous