How do Non-clinical Paranoid Vs. Socially Anxious Individuals React to Failure Vs. Success? An Experimental Investigation

We did a quasi experimental study with 223 co llege students divided into three groups according to the presence of non-clinical paranoid ideation vs. social an xiety: the paranoia group (PG) vs. the social an xiety group (SA G) vs. the control group (CG). We measured participants' trait anger, paranoid ideation, external shame, state an xiety, state anger and depressive symptomatology using self-reports at time 1. Afterwards, we randomly assigned participants to a success vs. a failure condition using a computer game task. We then assessed their emotional and paranoid reactions (time 2). Independent sample t tests showed that the PG was more temperamentally aggressive than the SAG. Wilco xon Sign tests showed that during failure, the paranoia group significantly increased their paranoid ideation, negative emotional reactions to performance, state anger and state social paranoia from t ime s 1 to 2. In contrast, the SAG increased their state anxiety and external shame fro m t imes 1 to 2. The PG d idn't significantly decrease in paranoid ideation but they showed a significant increase in positive emot ional reactions while significantly decreasing in state anger during success. The SA G increased significantly in their positive emotional react ions during success but they also significantly increased in paranoid ideation. The negative impact of failure for PG and of success for the SA G alerts us to key indiv idual differences and the importance of managing anger, an xiety and paranoid feelings during evaluation.