Do Competitive Contexts Affect Mindreading Performance?

Abstract

Mindreading is contingent upon interpersonal context. Little is known about how competitive contexts influence mindreading skills. The idea was that the capacity to think about mental states would decline when individuals experiencing failure in competition. This study aims to assess effects of a competitive experience (a computer competitive PC game) on a sample of healthy subjects (119 participants). The sample was divided into two sub-samples. The experimental group underwent an experience of failure, consisting in a PC game of logic against a hypothetical opponent. The control group was required instead only to discuss past personal experiences of competitive interactions. The Metacognitive Assessment Interview was administered to each sub-sample for evaluating mindreading capacities. Self-report tests were additionally provided for evaluation of trait-based dispositions: self-esteem, perfectionism, narcissism. Results supported our hypothesis: induction of sense of failure compromises ability to describe one's own mental states and mental states of others. This effect was more pronounced in the domain of self-reflection. Results remained significant after controlling for selfesteem, perfectionism, and narcissism. We discuss possible clinical implications of these findings and the importance of evaluating mindreading capacities under the pressure of social rank as well as of other social motive.

Pathological Narcissism and Emotional Responses to Rejection: The Impact of Adult Attachment

“…For example, social rank motives may be activated when one feels inferior to others in a competitive context (e.g., in response to the Cyberball rejection). It has been shown that pathologically narcissistic individuals may be hypersensitive to social rank cues (Colle et al, 2020;Dimaggio, in press), and thus negative emotional responses to rejection may be a function of feelings of inferiority brought about by a perceived lower social rank than other 'players' . Social rank motives may work alongside attachment processes to predict emotional reactions to rejection.…”

Culture and psychopathology: An attempt at reconsidering the role of social learning

“…Epistemic tracking alone serves social competition well: simply knowing what the competitor wants is sufficient, and there is no great selective advantage to coordinating the competitor's mental state with the contents of one's subjectivity or indeed with external objective reality. Cooperation, however, is immeasurably advanced by being able to compare and coordinate different perspectives on the same situation (Colle et al, 2020).…”

“You are already all you need to be”: A case illustration of compassion‐focused therapy for shame and perfectionism

“…Shame is therefore linked to a competitive social mentality, where higher‐order cognitive abilities, such as the theory of mind or mentalizing, are recruited in the monitoring and processing of social cues about one's attractiveness in the eyes of others (Gilbert, 2007). However, we now know that experiencing failure in competitive contexts impairs one's abilities to mentalize and think about one's and others’ mental states (Colle et al, 2020). Hence, the potential for shame is universal, although it can vary in terms of triggers, intensity, and chronicity (Matos et al, 2020).…”