@misc{kirchner_better_2022,
	title = {Better {Safe} than {Sorry}? - {An} {Active} {Inference} {Approach} to {Biased} {Social} {Inference} in {Depression}},
	shorttitle = {Better {Safe} than {Sorry}?},
	url = {https://osf.io/bp9re_v1},
	doi = {10.31234/osf.io/bp9re},
	abstract = {Individuals with depressive disorders reveal marked distortions in their social perception and behavior. Self-reinforcing vicious cycles of social avoidance and increasing anxiety can negatively influence the disease’s course. Clinical psychology has offered many explanations as to why these distortions tend to persist in depression, even when the patient’s social context changes for the better. Active inference, a general computational theory of perception, planning, and behavior, has the potential to improve psychological models of depression. Its flexible mathematical formalization offers new avenues towards understanding underlying mechanisms by modelling implicit, inferential processes. We argue that the maintenance of depressive symptoms is primarily due to how (and by what model of the social world) people with depression infer the nature of social contexts through social action (e.g., social decision making). In line with recent work on decision processes, we propose to conceptualize social inference in depression as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). This allows us to formalize different “phenotypes” of social processing and behavior in depression. For example, overly precise, negative prior beliefs about the hidden state of a social context may trigger more pessimistic social decision making in depression, whereas very imprecise prior beliefs should result in more insecure social behaviors. Finally, we outline a research agenda and suggest relevant applications in diagnostics and treatment selection.},
	language = {en-us},
	urldate = {2025-05-25},
	publisher = {OSF},
	author = {Kirchner, Lukas and Eckert, Anna-Lena and Berg, Max and Endres, Dominik and Straube, Benjamin and Rief, Winfried},
	month = aug,
	year = {2022},
	keywords = {active inference, Bayesian brain, cognitive biases, depression, interpersonal problems, MDD, social functioning, social interaction},
	file = {OSF Preprint:C\:\\Users\\duoyi\\Zotero\\storage\\APQGYF3U\\Kirchner et al. - 2022 - Better Safe than Sorry - An Active Inference Approach to Biased Social Inference in Depression.pdf:application/pdf},
}