"How Many Died?" Memory Bias for Number of Deaths in Schizotypal Personality Traits

Abstract

It has been reported in the literature that false memories or memory impairments can be found in individuals with high schizotypal personality traits. However, these studies based their findings exclusively on verbal information. Extending upon prior research, the present study examined whether the recall of recorded number of deaths (numerical information) can reflect a bias that is due to the schizotypal personality traits in a student sample. An online survey was conducted after the first COVID-19 lockdown in France. We assessed recall of deaths numbers, schizotypal personality traits, levels of paranoia, and trauma caused by COVID-19, as well as depression and anxiety scales. Analyses revealed a negative correlation between levels of schizotypal personality scores and the respondents' recall of deaths number announced by official sources, showing that the recall of an objective and numerical information can be also biased by schizotypal personality traits, as much as in episodic memory for verbal information. Expectedly, further analyses revealed that individuals high in schizotypal personality traits believed that real deaths numbers were superior to those announced by official governmental sources, suggesting that people with high schizotypal personality traits lowers the death number announced by official sources in their recall. Implications are discussed both in the field of memory bias studies for schizotypy and in the field of psychopathology for the lack of trust within people with high schizotypal personality and the involuntary nature of this bias.