Effect of religious context on the content of visual hallucinations in individuals high in religiosity.
This study investigated the interaction between the current environment and personality factors associated with religiosity in determining the content of false perceptions (used as a model for hallucinations). A primed word-detection task was used to investigate the effect of a 'religious' context on false perceptions in individuals scoring highly on religiosity. After a subliminal prime, participants viewed letter strings, and stated any words that they saw. The prime and the actual words could have a religious connotation or not. Participants measuring high on religiosity were more likely to report false perceptions of a religious type than participants low on religiosity. It is suggested that context affects the content of false perceptions through the activation of stored beliefs and values, which vary between individuals, offering a mechanism for the effect of context on idiosyncratic content of hallucinations in schizophrenia. The effect of context and individual differences on false-perception content in the current study provides possibilities for future work regarding the underlying nature of hallucinations and their treatment.
Swansea University, Department of Psychology, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom. Electronic address: p.reed@swansea.ac.uk.
Phil
P
Reed
Swansea University, Department of Psychology, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom.
Natasha
N
Clarke
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012067:Religion; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
Context; False perceptions; Hallucination model; Priming; Religiosity