Colle Livia, Dimaggio Giancarlo, Carcione Antonino, Nicolò Giuseppe, Semerari Antonio, Chiavarino Claudia
Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
III Centro Psicoterapia Cognitiva, Rome, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jun 23;11:1284. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01284. eCollection 2020.
Mindreading is contingent upon interpersonal context. Little is known about how competitive contexts influence mindreading skills. The idea was that the capacity to think about mental states would decline when individuals experiencing failure in competition. This study aims to assess effects of a competitive experience (a computer competitive PC game) on a sample of healthy subjects (119 participants). The sample was divided into two sub-samples. The experimental group underwent an experience of failure, consisting in a PC game of logic against a hypothetical opponent. The control group was required instead only to discuss past personal experiences of competitive interactions. The Metacognitive Assessment Interview was administered to each sub-sample for evaluating mindreading capacities. Self-report tests were additionally provided for evaluation of trait-based dispositions: self-esteem, perfectionism, narcissism. Results supported our hypothesis: induction of sense of failure compromises ability to describe one's own mental states and mental states of others. This effect was more pronounced in the domain of self-reflection. Results remained significant after controlling for self-esteem, perfectionism, and narcissism. We discuss possible clinical implications of these findings and the importance of evaluating mindreading capacities under the pressure of social rank as well as of other social motive.
读心术取决于人际情境。关于竞争情境如何影响读心术技能，我们所知甚少。有一种观点认为，当个体在竞争中遭遇失败时，思考心理状态的能力会下降。本研究旨在评估一种竞争体验（一款电脑竞技游戏）对一组健康受试者（119名参与者）的影响。样本被分为两个子样本。实验组经历了失败体验，即在一款与假想对手进行逻辑对抗的电脑游戏中失败。而对照组仅被要求讨论过去个人的竞争互动经历。对每个子样本进行了元认知评估访谈，以评估读心能力。此外，还提供了自我报告测试，以评估基于特质的倾向：自尊、完美主义、自恋。结果支持了我们的假设：失败感的诱导会损害描述自己和他人心理状态的能力。这种影响在自我反思领域更为明显。在控制了自尊、完美主义和自恋之后，结果仍然显著。我们讨论了这些发现可能的临床意义，以及在社会地位压力以及其他社会动机下评估读心能力的重要性。
