# Are psychotic-like experiences associated with aberrant prosocial decision-making behavior?

## TL;DR

People with high levels of psychotic-like experiences show unusual prosocial decision-making patterns, possibly due to social cognition deficits.

## Contribution

A new paradigm based on the Dictator Game was developed to study social decision-making in individuals with psychotic-like experiences.

## Key findings

- Individuals with high PLEs showed aberrant decision-making, favoring punishment over compensation.
- Empathy and Machiavellism predicted prosocial behavior beyond group status.
- High PLEs may reflect deficits in adapting behavior to social situations.

## Abstract

Deficits in social functioning and decision-making are well-documented in schizophrenia, but their relationship with positive symptoms and social conflicts is poorly understood. We created a new paradigm based on the Dictator Game (DG) to explore differences in social decision-making between individuals experiencing high levels of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), particularly hallucinations and delusions, and controls with less PLEs.

A large community sample (N = 1,161) completed a DG in an online study whereby extreme groups were built based on the positive subscale of the CAPE.

Overall, participants experiencing PLEs did not act less prosocial than controls but showed a somewhat aberrant decision-making behavior, particularly a pattern of behaving more prosocial in fair situations and generally favoring punishment over compensation relative to controls. Mediation analyses suggest that measures of empathy and Machiavellism have predictive power for prosocial behavior beyond group status.

The present study raises the possibility that individuals with high levels of PLEs may be less able to adapt their behavior to the situation at hand than controls. These irregularities might be due to deficits in social cognition which may elicit conflict, thus compromising social functioning and possibly contributing to the formation of positive symptoms.