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People Inclined To Delusions Make Rushed Decision

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Oct 02, 2014 09:02 AM EDT

People who are prone to delusions are more likely to make a rushed decision, suggests a new research. 

Researchers assigned participants a computer task in which they observed the color of a black or white fish caught rom one of two lakes and were then asked to choose to see further fish or decide on one of the lakes as the source of that sequence of fish.

The participants were awarded for choosing the correct lake but costs were imposed for seeing more fish, the press release added. 

Researchers observed that the more delusion-prone the participants were, the earlier they chose a lake. However, those who were highly prone to delusions chose a lake in advance of the optimum moment, gathering less information than they needed in order to make the decision that was most beneficial to them. 

"People who suffer from delusions have unjustified, and sometimes bizarre, beliefs about themselves and the world. A tendency to gather insufficient evidence when forming beliefs, and making decisions, is thought to be a core cognitive component of delusion formation," said Dr Ryan McKay, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, in the press release. 

"In our study, the combination of rewards and costs created optimal decision points, allowing us to investigate genuine 'jumps to conclusions'. Our results confirm that delusion-prone people are less likely to wait for the best moment before making a decision. This indicates that they would rush to make choices in their everyday lives, relating to anything from money or jobs to family and friends, which could lead to less successful outcomes for them."

The research has been published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

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