Time to Reason about Crime: Assessing the Impact of Schizotypal Tendencies on a Crime-Based Reasoning Task: TIME TO REASON ABOUT CRIME

There is a wealth of evidence that suggests that individuals with high schizotypal tendencies experience a number of biases when reasoning (Galbraith, Manktelow and Morris 2008; Dudley et al. 1997; Garety 1991). This study employs a non-clinical sample, screened for schizotypal tendencies to assess how delusional ideation impacts upon an individual's ability to reason about crime-based scenarios. Qualitative differences were found between high and low scorers in terms of the strategies and methods employed to reason about criminal behaviour. Future research needs to consider the creation of tests with greater sensitivity in order to assess and discover the boundaries of where reasoning biases occur.