Can you trust this source? Advice taking in borderline personality disorder

TY - JOUR

T1 - Can you trust this source? Advice taking in borderline personality disorder

AU - Scheunemann, Jakob

AU - Jelinek, Lena

AU - Biedermann, Sarah V

AU - Lipp, Michael

AU - Yassari, Amir Hosseyn

AU - Kühn, Simone

AU - Gallinat, Jürgen

AU - Moritz, Steffen

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - Research suggests that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) share a range of cognitive biases with patients with psychosis. As the disorder often manifests in dysfunctional social interactions, we assumed associated reasoning styles would be exaggerated in a social setting. For the present study, we applied the Judge-Advisor System by asking participants to provide initial estimates of a person's age and presumed hostility based on a portrait photo. Afterwards, we presented additional cues/advice in the form of responses by anonymous previous respondents. Participants could revise their estimate, seek additional advice, or make a decision. Contrary to our preregistered hypothesis, patients with BPD (n = 38) performed similarly to healthy controls (n = 30). Patients sought the same number of pieces of advice, were equally confident, and used advice in similar ways to revise their estimates. Thus, patients with BPD did trust advice. However, patients gave higher hostility ratings to the portrayed persons. In conclusion, patients with BPD showed no cognitive biases in seeking, evaluating, and integrating socially provided information. While the study implies emotional rather than cognitive biases in the disorder, cognitive biases may still prove to be useful treatment targets in order to encourage delaying and reflecting on extreme emotional responses in social interactions.

AB - Research suggests that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) share a range of cognitive biases with patients with psychosis. As the disorder often manifests in dysfunctional social interactions, we assumed associated reasoning styles would be exaggerated in a social setting. For the present study, we applied the Judge-Advisor System by asking participants to provide initial estimates of a person's age and presumed hostility based on a portrait photo. Afterwards, we presented additional cues/advice in the form of responses by anonymous previous respondents. Participants could revise their estimate, seek additional advice, or make a decision. Contrary to our preregistered hypothesis, patients with BPD (n = 38) performed similarly to healthy controls (n = 30). Patients sought the same number of pieces of advice, were equally confident, and used advice in similar ways to revise their estimates. Thus, patients with BPD did trust advice. However, patients gave higher hostility ratings to the portrayed persons. In conclusion, patients with BPD showed no cognitive biases in seeking, evaluating, and integrating socially provided information. While the study implies emotional rather than cognitive biases in the disorder, cognitive biases may still prove to be useful treatment targets in order to encourage delaying and reflecting on extreme emotional responses in social interactions.

U2 - 10.1007/s00406-022-01539-w

DO - 10.1007/s00406-022-01539-w

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 36629942

VL - 273

SP - 875

EP - 885

JO - EUR ARCH PSY CLIN N

JF - EUR ARCH PSY CLIN N

SN - 0940-1334

IS - 4

ER -