Are biased and inflexible updating of interpretations broad or narrow transdiagnostic risk markers for psychopathology? A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) lens

Previous research has linked biased and inflexible interpretations of ambiguous information to various forms of psychopathology. However, existing studies typically investigate these interpretation processes within individual diagnostic categories, overlooking the significant symptom overlap and comorbidity among mental health conditions. Consequently, the extent to which biased and inflexible interpretations represent broad transdiagnostic or more narrowly specific risk factors remains unclear. To address this gap, this study investigated transdiagnostic associations between biased and inflexible interpretation processes and dimensions of psychopathology using the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP). HiTOP is a data-driven framework designed to integrate psychopathology symptoms across traditional diagnostic boundaries. A crowdsourced community sample of adults (N = 383) completed a HiTOP self-report battery and the emotional Bias Against Disconfirmatory Evidence task. This task measures negative and positive interpretation biases, as well as inflexible negative interpretations in social contexts. Bi-factor latent regression modeling was employed to examine associations between interpretation processes and both the general p-factor of psychopathology (an overarching dimension representing shared variance across disorders) and five HiTOP spectra (internalizing, thought disorder, disinhibited externalizing, antagonistic externalizing, detachment). The p-factor showed significant associations with negative interpretation bias and negative interpretation inflexibility. Reduced positive interpretation bias was uniquely associated with the detachment spectrum, which is characterized by emotional detachment, social disinterest, and avoidance of social relationships. These findings suggest that negatively biased and inflexible interpretations may represent general transdiagnostic risk markers for psychopathology, while reduced positive interpretation bias could be a more specific risk factor for detachment-related conditions. Future research should explore the mechanisms through which inflexible interpretation processes contribute to generalized and spectrum-specific psychopathological risk.