Does contextual information influence positive and negative schizotypy scores in healthy individuals? The answer is maybe Christine Mohr * , Ute Leonards Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK Received 5 November 2004; received in revised form 6 March 2005; accepted 26 June 2005 Abstract Defensive responding in schizotypy questionnaires might depend on context. Students completed a schizotypy questionnaire in a bpsychiatricQ context or a bcreativityQ context. Positive, but not negative, schizotypy scores were lower in the psychiatry than in the creativity group, but findings applied mainly to male participants. The implications of these findings are critically discussed. D 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Magical ideation; Physical anhedonia; High-risk studies; Sex difference; Defensive responding 1. Introduction In assessments of schizotypal features in relatives of patients with schizophrenia, normal to low rates of positive schizotypy scores are observed in addition to rather high rates of negative schizotypy scores, at least when the Chapman Scales are considered (for over- view, see Yaralian et al., 2000). Since schizotypy might indicate psychosis-proneness (Chapman et al., 1994), the normal to low rate of positive schizotypal thought in relatives of patients with schizophrenia is quite unexpected. It therefore has been suggested that low positive schizotypy scores might reflect defensive responding to unusual and odd experiences apparently associated with the serious mental illness in their relatives (Claridge et al., 1983; Katsanis et al., 1990; Yaralian et al., 2000). Positive symptoms are by their nature more obvious to observers than negative symp- toms; however, it is these negative symptoms (also known as schizotaxia) that appear to be a more impor- tant determinant of genetic liability to schizophrenia (MacDonald et al., 2001; Tsuang et al., 2002). More- over, negative symptoms precede the onset of acute psychosis (Cornblatt et al., 2003), and have been proposed to be a stable trait marker of the disease (Andreasen and Flaum, 1991). Negative schizotypy scores in relatives of patients with schizophrenia might thus indicate a genetic vulnerability factor, since scores in relatives range between the high nega- tive schizotypy scores of their affected family member and the low negative schizotypy scores of controls (e.g. Clementz et al., 1991; Franke et al., 1994). 0165-1781/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2005.06.006 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 117 954 6845; fax: +44 117 928 8588. E-mail address: Christine.Mohr@bristol.ac.uk (C. Mohr). Psychiatry Research 136 (2005) 135 – 141 www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres