Areeb Kidwai

The association between delusions and jumping to conclusions (JTC) has long been a topic of conversation within the field of abnormal psychology. A recent association that has been gaining attention due to its relevance in both clinical and non-clinical populations is the delusion subtype of persecutory ideations and JTC. Unfortunately, research looking at this relationship is minimal and limited in both clinical and non-clinical populations. To inform delusion reduction interventions, the present study preliminarily evaluates the relationship between persecutory ideation and JTC using the Green et al. Paranoid Thought Scale (GPTS) as a measure of persecutory ideation and the box task as measure for JTC in clinically diagnosed psychotic patients and non-clinical matched. We also examined the relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and JTC and hypothesized that IQ scores would serve as a stronger correlator with JTC rather than persecutory ideation scores. Our results did not support the hypothesis and failed to replicate previous research showing correlations between persecutory ideation and JTC, and IQ linked with JTC. We speculated that persecutory ideations may operate under cognitive mechanisms not associated with JTC. Additionally, we also proposed that our study may serve as an example of Angus MacDonald’s claim that behavioral tasks do not accurately translate to clinically rooted definitions. Several other explanations are discussed for both the lack of replication and statistical significance observed in the present study.