Attribution of Mental States to Others by Schizophrenic Patients

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to validate experimentally the hypothesis that postulates a distorted attribution of mental states to others in schizophrenics. Twelve subjects with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were compared with a normal and a clinical control group. Subjects were asked to read a comic strip (with no verbal material) and to choose one of the two answer cards which seemed the most logical to complete the sequence based on the supposed mental state of the character. The results of this study confirm the principal hypothesis that schizophrenics with thought and language disorders have an impaired ability to attribute intentions and false beliefs as they figure in this experiment. Although the theory of mind deficit was specific to schizophrenia for the attribution of false beliefs, no difference was found between the schizophrenic group and the depressed group for the attribution of intentions. Schizophrenics' choice is based specifically on a socially familiar experience rather than the context of the story.