title: Need for closure and jumping-to-conclusions in delusion-prone individuals.
abstract: Members of the general population were screened for delusion-proneness using the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI). Two groups were formed from the participants who scored in the upper and lower quartiles of the PDI and compared on a probability judgment task and on the Need for Closure scale (NFC). The study investigated whether the "jump-to-conclusions" (JTC) reasoning bias, characteristic of deluded participants, could be found in delusion-prone individuals. NFC was investigated as a motivational factor that may correlate with this reasoning bias. Evidence for the existence of the data-gathering, but not the probability judgment, part of the JTC reasoning bias was found in the delusion-prone individuals. This group also scored significantly higher on the NFC scale. As the data-gathering reasoning bias was found in delusion-prone individuals this suggests that it may be involved in the formation, rather than merely the maintenance, of delusional beliefs.
authors.affiliation: University Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, GKT, University of London, St. Thomas's Hospital, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Susannah May
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Colbert
authors.forename: Emmanuelle R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D004198:Disease Susceptibility / Q000523:psychology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012928:Social Desirability; D013850:Thinking