False insights—moments of sudden, incorrect understanding—can be triggered in anyone under the right conditions, not just people prone to psychosis or delusional thinking. In an experiment with 200 participants who completed an adapted version of the FIAT paradigm, which elicits false 'Aha' moments for unsolvable anagrams, no association was found between these experimentally induced false insights and measures of schizotypy, need for cognition, jumping to conclusions, aberrant salience, faith in intuition, or cognitive reflection. The findings suggest that experiencing false insights may be a general human phenomenon rather than a marker of particular thinking styles or psychosis proneness.
A laboratory method called FIAT elicits 'Aha' moments for incorrect anagram solutions, i.e. false insights. Because psychotic symptoms often accompany strong feelings of insight, the authors tested whether people who experience more false insights are more prone to psychosis and delusion. In 200 participants, they found no association between experimentally induced false insights and measures of Schizotypy, Need for Cognition, Jumping to Conclusions, Aberrant Salience, Faith in Intuition, or the Cognitive Reflection Task. The authors conclude that false insights may not be limited to any particular personality type but can arise for anyone under the right circumstances.