IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rpsyxx/v8y2016i4p369-371.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is delusional imperviousness a backfire effect of being disbelieved?

Author

Listed:
  • Kyle Arnold

Abstract

A central problem of delusions is their imperviousness to counterargument. Although several existing theories account for aspects of delusional imperviousness, they omit the context of social interactions in which it occurs. Delusions elicit a specific and powerful social response from others: disbelief. Recent research has identified a backfire effect that happens when efforts to correct false beliefs strengthen, rather than weaken, conviction in those beliefs. It is proposed that delusional imperviousness is a special case of a backfire effect, in which repeated efforts to correct delusions paradoxically strengthen them. Delusions become impervious because they are strengthened by the counterarguments they elicit in others.

Suggested Citation

  • Kyle Arnold, 2016. "Is delusional imperviousness a backfire effect of being disbelieved?," Psychosis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(4), pages 369-371, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpsyxx:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:369-371
    DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2016.1166515
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17522439.2016.1166515
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/17522439.2016.1166515?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rpsyxx:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:369-371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPSY20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.