Patients with schizophrenia are less prone to interpret virtual others' empathetic questioning as helpful
Résumé
Individuals with schizophrenia are impaired in their neurocognition and present cognitive biases. These
impairments may lead to a deficit in recognizing helping intentions of others. To investigate recognition
of help, we designed a card-guessing game (Virtual Help Recognition Paradigm) involving two successive
virtual agents asking questions to the participant at different moments of the game. These questions
were either empathetic (i.e. on the subject's feelings) or non-empathetic (i.e. on technical aspects of the
game). We assessed how much the participant felt that the virtual agent had helped him and, her attitude
and personality traits. We measured how much the participant trusted the virtual agent with a
monetary allocation procedure. Twenty individuals with schizophrenia and twenty healthy controls were
recruited. The controls� ratings demonstrated that they interpreted empathetic questioning as helping
and rewarded it positively with an increased monetary allocation. Participants with schizophrenia had a
reduced perception of the differences between the two agents. Only the rating concerning the �interest/
attention� of the agent toward these participants yielded significant differences among conditions. Hypothetically,
individuals with schizophrenia take into account the fact they are the object of another's
attention, but may fail to infer a helping intention and to behave accordingly.