Thinking style and psychosis proneness do not predict false insights

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The FIAT paradigm (Grimmer et al., 2022) is a novel method of eliciting ‘Aha’ moments for incorrect solutions to anagrams in the laboratory, i.e. false insights. There exist many documented reports of psychotic symptoms accompanying strong feelings of ‘Aha!’ (Feyaerts et al., 2021; Mishara, 2010; Tulver et al., 2021), therefore, the newly developed FIAT could reveal whether people who have more false insights are more prone to psychosis and delusion. To test this possibility, we recruited 200 participants to take an adapted version of the FIAT and complete measures of thinking style and psychosis proneness. We 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. We conclude that experiencing false insights might not be constrained to any particular type of person, but rather, may arise for anyone under the right circumstances.