title: What can the study of first impressions tell us about attitudinal ambivalence and paranoia in schizophrenia?
abstract: Although social cognition deficits have been associated with schizophrenia, social trait judgments - or first impressions - have rarely been studied. These first impressions, formed immediately after looking at a person's face, have significant social consequences. Eighty-one individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 62 control subjects rated 30 neutral faces on 10 positive or negative traits: attractive, mean, trustworthy, intelligent, dominant, fun, sociable, aggressive, emotionally stable and weird. Compared to controls, patients gave higher ratings for positive traits as well as for negative traits. Patients also demonstrated more ambivalence in their ratings. Patients who were exhibiting paranoid symptoms assigned higher intensity ratings for positive social traits than non-paranoid patients. Social trait ratings were negatively correlated with everyday problem solving skills in patients. Although patients appeared to form impressions of others in a manner similar to controls, they tended to assign higher scores for both positive and negative traits. This may help explain the social deficits observed in schizophrenia: first impressions of higher degree are harder to correct, and ambivalent attitudes may impair the motivation to interact with others. Consistent with research on paranoia and self-esteem, actively-paranoid patients' positive social traits judgments were of higher intensity than non-paranoid patients'.
authors.affiliation: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: Ftremeau@NKI.RFMH.ORG.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Trémeau
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA; University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Antonius
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Todorov
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social and Psychiatric Initiatives (InSPIRES), New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Yasmina
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rebani
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social and Psychiatric Initiatives (InSPIRES), New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Kelsey
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.affiliation: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Sang Han
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA; Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Calderone
authors.affiliation: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA; Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Karen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Nolan
authors.affiliation: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA; Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA; Institute for Social and Psychiatric Initiatives (InSPIRES), New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malaspina
authors.affiliation: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Javitt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Ambivalence; Attitude; Social functioning; Social trait judgment; Suspiciousness; Trust