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    Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Forensic Mental Health on 26/12/2021, available online:  http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14999013.2021.2007432

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    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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The Role Played by Theory of Mind and Empathy in the Feigning of Psychopathology

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • Marzia Di Girolamo
  • Luciano Giromini
  • Jessica Bosi
  • Lara Warmelink
  • Ilaria La Scala
  • Caterina Loiacono
  • Federica Miraglia
  • Alessandro Zennaro
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>31/10/2022
<mark>Journal</mark>International Journal of Forensic Mental Health
Issue number4
Volume21
Number of pages14
Pages (from-to)334-347
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date26/12/21
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In this article, we hypothesized that in order to feign mental illness, one would need to have empathy and be able to understand other’s mental states. To test this hypothesis, we asked 432 healthy volunteers to feign depression, PTSD or schizophrenia while completing a self-report test that measures the severity of the feigned condition’s symptoms and the Inventory of Problems – 29 (IOP-29). Additionally, all participants were administered a theory of mind (ToM) task and an empathy measure with the request to respond truthfully. Results from a series of linear regression models revealed that higher cognitive empathy is associated with increased symptom endorsement on self-report symptom questionnaires and higher ToM abilities are associated with less credible feigned profiles, especially in the case of feigned depression.

Bibliographic note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Forensic Mental Health on 26/12/2021, available online:  http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14999013.2021.2007432