Are You Really Paranoid, Just Because They Are After You? Exploring the Underlying Sensitization Processes of Intersectional Discrimination on Everyday-Life Paranoia.

Background: Elevated paranoia levels have been found in discriminated, minoritized groups. Social-cognitive models of paranoia posit that experiences of discrimination strengthen negative core beliefs, which in turn foster clinical paranoia. In contrast, the healthy cultural mistrust hypothesis proposes that elevated paranoia in minoritized groups reflects an adaptive response to increased exploitation/discrimination. To explore whether elevated paranoia in discriminated groups can be fully understood within clinical models, we tested whether a history of discrimination amplifies the association between everyday-life stressors and subsequent state-paranoia and whether this moderation effect remains when controlling for established cognitive risk factors for paranoia (i.e., dysfunctional beliefs). Method: A general population sample ( Results: More LDE amplified the association between paranoia, negative affect, and exclusion experiences. When controlling for the moderation effects of negative beliefs, effect sizes for the LDE moderation were lower but largely remained significant. Conclusions: Increased state-paranoia in the daily lives of people with discrimination experiences can be partially, but not fully, explained by clinical, cognitive risk factors. Consequently, healthy cultural mistrust can be considered an additional contributing factor to higher mistrust/paranoia in minoritized groups. Future in-depth research needs to disentangle mechanisms of emerging paranoia and adaptive mistrust in minoritized groups.