Social priming increases nonverbal expressive behaviors in schizophrenia

PLoS One. 2014 Oct 2;9(10):e109139. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109139. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Semantic priming tasks are classically used to influence and implicitly promote target behaviors. Recently, several studies have demonstrated that prosocial semantic priming modulated feelings of social affiliation. The main aim of this study was to determine whether inducing feelings of social affiliation using priming tasks could modulate nonverbal social behaviors in schizophrenia. We used the Scrambled Sentence Task to prime schizophrenia patients according to three priming group conditions: pro-social, non-social or anti-social. Forty-five schizophrenia patients, diagnosed according to DSM-IV-TR, were randomly assigned to one of the three priming groups of 15 participants. We evaluated nonverbal social behaviors using the Motor-Affective subscale of the Motor-Affective-Social-Scale. Results showed that schizophrenia patients with pro-social priming had significantly more nonverbal behaviors than schizophrenia patients with anti-social and non-social priming conditions. Schizophrenia patient behaviors are affected by social priming. Our results have several clinical implications for the rehabilitation of social skills impairments frequently encountered among individuals with schizophrenia.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Nonverbal Communication*
  • Random Allocation
  • Schizophrenia / physiopathology*
  • Social Behavior*

Grants and funding

This research was supported by AlterEgo, a project funded by the European Union FP7 (grant #600610). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.