The role of expressive suppression in hallucinatory-like and delusion-like experiences. Findings in a non-clinical sample.

Introduction: Previous works concerning emotion regulation in psychosis highlighted the relationship between expressive suppression and negative psychotic symptoms, as well as between expressive suppression and auditory hallucinations. However, a direct association between suppression and delusions has not been observed. In the study we examined whether expressive suppression is associated with psychotic-like experiences and whether it may influence delusion-like experiences by changing the impact of cognitive biases on delusional beliefs.

Methods: Two hundred and twenty-one healthy individuals never diagnosed with psychiatric disorders completed self-report questionnaires measuring: delusion-like experiences, hallucinatory-like experiences, cognitive biases and expressive suppression. Regression and moderation analyses were performed.

Results: Regression analyses revealed that the overall level of suppression predicts hallucinatory-like experiences, but not delusion-like experiences. Suppression of anxiety and suppression of sadness were significant predictors of hallucinatory-like experiences, whereas suppression of anxiety predicted delusion-like experiences. A moderation analysis indicated that both the overall level of suppression and suppression of sadness moderate the relationship between belief inflexibility and delusion-like experiences in such a way that belief inflexibility increases delusion-like experiences only among individuals reporting a low level of suppression.

Conclusions: Our findings confirmed that expressive suppression has a direct impact on hallucinatory-like experiences and suggest that the use of suppression may influence delusion-like experiences by moderating the impact of belief inflexibility on delusional thinking.