Willingness to trust is reduced by loneliness and paranoia

Loneliness is associated with negative social behaviors impairing social relationships. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we investigated whether paranoid thoughts affect lonely individuals’ willingness to rely on expectations of partner reciprocity during trusting interactions in individuals with and without psychosis. We found that loneliness and paranoia were strongly correlated with each other and with more distrustful behavior after breaches of trust. Sensitivity to changes in partner reciprocity were higher in lonelier and more paranoid individuals. Lonelier individuals also trusted highly-reciprocating partners less. Computational modeling revealed that lonelier and more paranoid individuals were less willing to rely on expectations of partner reciprocity. Importantly, these effects were observed in both patients and controls, indicating the important impact of loneliness and paranoia on both clinical and general populations. These findings demonstrate how loneliness affects social behaviors and expectations, pointing to important downstream implications for lonely individuals’ relationships.