Social judgments based on a series of encounters in healthy and schizophrenia participants.

Many studies of social perception and judgment have required individuals to make evaluations of social parameters (such as trustworthiness) based on static presentations of social stimuli (faces). In the current study, we assessed whether individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls differed on their judgments of others based on a series of encounters, which more closely simulated the development of impressions of others based on multiple interactions over time. Twenty-eight healthy controls and 29 individuals with schizophrenia completed 25 gambling interactions with three different partners -- one who reciprocated about equally (neutral), one who gave the subject more money (positive), and one who kept more money for themselves (negative). After interacting with each partner, subjects indicated how much they liked, trusted, and would like to play again with each partner; these judgments were combined to create a social evaluation variable. Analyses found that both healthy controls and individuals with schizophrenia rated the positive partner most positively, the negative partner most negatively, and the neutral partner between these levels. Additionally, while individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls did not differ in their ratings of gambling partners, individuals with schizophrenia had a different gambling strategy compared to healthy controls; the amount gambled with each partner did not differ for individuals with schizophrenia, whereas healthy controls gambled the most with the positive partner, gambled less with the neutral partner, and the least with the negative partner. These results suggest that individuals with schizophrenia did not adjust their behavior with the different gambling partners despite evaluating the partners similarly to the healthy controls. The results of this study are discussed within the context of social judgment and decision making.