Negativity bias and instability in spontaneous and deliberate evaluations of others : the role of borderline personality disorder features

Interpersonal dysfunctions are central to borderline personality disorder (BPD). Past research has examined different mechanisms underlying interpersonal dysfunctions in borderline personality, including emotion dysregulation and impulsivity, deficits in facial emotion recognition, low mentalization, low trust and cooperation, impairments in empathy and intimacy as well as affective and interpersonal instability. The present thesis also aims at obtaining deeper insights into the interplay of socio-cognitive mechanisms underlying interpersonal dysfunctions in borderline personality. Toward this goal, this thesis examined the role of evaluations of others in borderline personality. In fact, evaluations of others exist from the first moment when we meet someone and it remains one of the most fundamental impressions we have in our social interactions, including in romantic interactions. Such evaluations can present at two levels of evaluations; in fact, there is ample evidence that evaluations can be the result of relatively thoughtful, deliberate processes (i.e. deliberate evaluations) or of relatively instantaneous processes where there is no or little conscious intention to evaluate the stimuli (i.e. spontaneous evaluations). In this thesis, two studies assessed borderline personality (BP) features on a continuum of severity and examined whether these features are related with negative or split-off (i.e., unstable and polarized) evaluations of others at the spontaneous and deliberate levels of evaluations.  Study 1 (N = 204) examined evaluations of a movie character at two different times, that is, after a positive clip and after a negative clip. Spontaneous evaluations were measured with an evaluative priming task and deliberate evaluations were measured with a self-report measure. Study 1 examined two main hypotheses: whether BP features are related with (1) more unstable or (2) more negative evaluations of the movie character at the spontaneous and deliberate levels of evaluations. Results showed that participants had overall positive evaluations of the movie character on both types of evaluations. Contrary to the instability hypotheses, BP features involved no switch from positive to negative evaluations or from negative to positive evaluations on either type of evaluations. However, we found evidence for context-specific negativity biases for both spontaneous and deliberate evaluations. Specifically, BP features were related with relatively more negative evaluations of the movie character. This effect was interpreted in light of the following additional considerations: (1) it emerged in different conditions of the study depending on the type of evaluations, (2) it appeared to be driven by greater positivity in individuals with low BP features and (3) it relied on a marginal three-way interaction regarding the implicit measure. Together, the results obtained on the explicit and implicit measures in Study 1 partially converge with empirical evidence and clinical theorizing about negativity biases in BPD and the result on the implicit measure should be considered with prudence given that it relies on a marginal three-way interaction.   Study 2 (N = 292) examined partner evaluations after participants imagined either (a) that their partner rejected them or (b) sought connection or (c) imagined no scenario (control condition). Spontaneous partner evaluations were measured with a name-letter task and deliberate partner evaluations were measured with a self-report measure. Study 2 examined two main hypotheses: whether BP features are related with (1) more polarized partner evaluations (i.e., alternation between negativity and positivity) or (2) more negative partner evaluations at the spontaneous and deliberate levels of evaluations. First, replicating prior research, results showed that individuals had predominantly positive evaluations of themselves and of their partner. Second, contrary to expectations, the rejection and closeness manipulations did not influence spontaneous partner evaluations and their influence on deliberate partner evaluations was marginal and small. Third, the results did not support the polarity hypothesis: individuals with high BP features did not display greater positivity after the closeness condition and greater negativity after the rejection condition. Instead, individuals with high BP features showed a reduced preference for their partner’s initials and reported less positive reactions to their partner independent of study conditions, in line with a generalized negativity bias on both types of evaluations. The discussion nuances the implications of the results to take in consideration the fact that the experimental conditions did not produce the expected main effects on partner evaluations.  Taken together, both studies found overall more positive evaluations, but BP features modulated this effect: we found preliminary evidence that individuals with high BP features had more negative evaluations (i.e., negativity biases) on both kinds of evaluations and in both studies. These results suggest that potential negativity biases toward others may be shaped both at relatively early and late processing stages in borderline personality. However, this interpretation is considered with prudence given that (a) it is partly based on marginal effects, (b) that some effects did not replicate across conditions of each study or across the two studies and (c) that the expected main effects of experimental conditions were not observed in Study 2.

Keyphrases: Mesure explicite, Borderline personality, Spontaneous evaluation, Deliberate evaluation, Negativity bias, Instability, Social cognition, Implicit measure, Explicit measure