Feared self and responsibility in obsessive compulsive phenomena.

In 30 seconds

This online randomized experiment examined whether heightened responsibility and feared-self cues influence obsessive-compulsive tendencies in 185 participants (mean age 28.11 years). Participants received heightened-responsibility or control instructions and completed vignettes priming morality-related feared self, culpability-related feared self, or a neutral scenario. Outcomes included discomfort, response time, and checking behaviour. The responsibility manipulation did not significantly affect outcomes. In contrast, participants’ existing feared-self levels and the feared-self manipulation were associated with significantly greater average discomfort, supporting a role for feared-self processes in discomfort-related responses.

Key findings

• The responsibility manipulation produced no significant variation in the measured outcomes.
• Existing feared-self levels and feared-self priming were linked to significantly higher average discomfort.

Why it matters

The experiment suggests that feared-self concerns may contribute to discomfort in obsessive-compulsive phenomena, whereas experimentally heightened responsibility did not alter the measured responses in this study. This distinction may inform cognitive models by highlighting feared-self processes as a potential component of how discomfort-related responses arise.

What to keep in mind

The online experiment assessed obsessive-compulsive tendencies using vignette tasks and behavioural measures; the abstract does not report clinical outcomes or longer-term follow-up.