Introduction: Previous studies of the relation between theory of mind (ToM) and schizotypy have suggested that ToM deficits may be associated with positive signs (e.g., hallucination- and delusion-like experiences). Good theoretical reasons exist to suggest that this relation may be largely due to ToM deficits being predominantly associated with the occurrence of persecutory delusion-like beliefs. This study set out to test this hypothesis and address limitations of previous research.
Method: Online administration of measures to a large nonclinical sample of young adults (N=828) was used to examine schizotypy, assessed by a new 30-item version of the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (Mason, Claridge, & Jackson, 1995), persecutory delusion-like beliefs, assessed by the Persecutory Ideation Questionnaire (McKay, Langdon, & Coltheart, 2006), and ToM, indexed by the Hinting task (Corcoran, Mercer, & Frith, 1995) and a cartoon comprehension task (Corcoran, Cahill, & Frith, 1997).
Results: No relations with ToM were found for global, positive, or negative schizotypy, nor persecutory delusion-like beliefs. This was the case both for whole group correlations and in analyses comparing groups formed by fifth-centile (top-bottom) splits by schizotypy scores. Scores on the two ToM tasks were not strongly correlated.
Conclusion: Our findings point to no correlations with ToM for either schizotypy or persecutory ideation. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research.