BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:How Paranoia Affects Social Cognition and Behaviour - Prof Nichola
  Raihani Professor of Evolution and Behaviour\, University College London
DTSTART:20181012T153000Z
DTEND:20181012T163000Z
UID:TALK110839@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Louise White
DESCRIPTION:Abstract\n\nHumans are arguably unique in the animal kingdom i
 n being able to understand that other individuals have intentions and also
  to some extent\, to predict what these might be. Nevertheless\, because i
 nferences about the beliefs and goals of others are often made in highly a
 mbiguous scenarios\, there is much scope for variation and error in intent
 ion attribution. One way in which variation in intention attribution might
  manifest is as paranoid thinking. Paranoia is the most common presenting 
 symptom of psychosis but is also distributed throughout the general popula
 tion to varying degrees of intensity\, including among people without any 
 clear psychiatric or neurological difficulties. Paranoia can be defined as
  an exaggerated tendency to believe that others intend to cause the person
  harm. I will suggest that paranoid thinking might be understood as the ad
 aptive output of a psychological system geared towards detecting coalition
 al threat. I outline our conceptual framework for thinking about paranoia 
 in evolutionary terms\, as well as selected experiments that show that par
 anoid attributions about the intentions of others are labile and increase 
 in response to experimentally-induced social threat. As well as affecting 
 how we perceive others\, I will show that paranoia also affects social beh
 aviour\, biasing people towards reduced cooperation and increased punishme
 nt in social interactions.\n\n\nBiography:  Nichola Raihani is PI of the S
 ocial Evolution and Behaviour Lab in the Department of Experimental Psycho
 logy at University College London. She is Professor in Evolution and Behav
 iour\, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Fellow of the Royal 
 Society of Biology.
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Department of Psychology
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR