Date of Award
5-2025
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Academic Program
Psychology BS
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Kelsey A. Bonfils, Ph.D.
Advisor Department
Psychology
Abstract
Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are perceptions, thoughts, or beliefs that resemble symptoms of psychosis but are less severe and not necessarily related to a mental disorder. A plethora of research has found associations between PLEs and hostile attribution bias, the tendency to over-interpret situations as hostile, aggressive, or intentional. Some work suggests viewing certain types of content online may be linked to hostile attribution bias. Yet, limited research has examined hostile attribution bias and PLEs through the lens of social media. This study aimed to explore these relationships by modifying a measure of hostile attribution bias using social media vignettes. This study also aimed to investigate the strength of associations of paranoia and schizotypy with hostile attribution bias as measured by the modified AIHQ. It was hypothesized that higher hostile attribution bias on the social media vignettes would be associated with higher PLEs, and paranoia would have strong relations with hostile attribution bias. Participants (n=132) were recruited through Prolific. Results indicate that higher PLEs are correlated with higher hostile attribution bias on the social media vignettes, and paranoia demonstrated moderately strong relationships with hostile attribution bias while schizotypy revealed nonsignificant-to-small relationships with hostile attribution bias. This suggests that PLEs are associated with increased hostile attribution bias on social media and may be related to viewing specific types of content online. Future research should focus on examining validity and reliability of the modified measure in clinical and subclinical populations.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Leggett, Jordan, "The Interplay Between Attribution Bias and Psychotic-like Experiences: The Role of Social Media" (2025). Honors Theses. 1035.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/1035