Delusional beliefs and experiences can predict the development of mental disorders within the spectrum of psychosis. The nature, content and prevalence of delusional experiences in the general population are still disputed topics. This study investigates the latent structure of delusion proneness in the non-clinical population. Eight hundred young adults (400 from Italy and 400 from the United ...

BACKGROUND Psychotic phenomena appear to form a continuum with normal experience and beliefs, and may build on common emotional interpersonal concerns. AIMS We tested predictions that paranoid ideation is exponentially distributed and hierarchically arranged in the general population, and that persecutory ideas build on more common cognitions of mistrust, interpersonal sensitivity and ideas o...