IntroductionPsychologically abusive groups are characterized by systematic influence, relational control, and leadership structures that foster dependency; however, empirical data on how mental health professionals conceptualize these phenomena remain limited. The present study investigated Italian psychologists’ knowledge, representations, and professional experiences regarding psychologically abusive groups.MethodsAn online survey was administered to 232 psychologists across Italy between November 2024 and April 2025. The questionnaire explored self-assessed knowledge, information sources, representations of groups, members, and leaders, perceived abusive strategies, clinical experiences, diagnostic formulations, and training needs.ResultsLimited formal preparation, with many participants relying primarily on non-academic sources despite rating scientific materials as more reliable. Abusive groups were predominantly described in terms of manipulation, isolation, and psychological control, while leaders were characterized by charisma, narcissistic grandiosity, and exploitative tendencies. In contrast, members were mainly portrayed as psychologically vulnerable, suggestible, and in need of belonging. Nearly half of respondents reported direct clinical contact with individuals involved in such groups. Reported clinical profiles were heterogeneous, with recurrent internalizing symptoms, trauma-related presentations, and dependency-related features.DiscussionOverall, findings reveal a partial alignment with contemporary systemic models of group psychological abuse, alongside a persistent tendency to frame involvement in individual vulnerability terms. The study underscores the need for clearer conceptual frameworks, evidence-informed terminology, validated assessment tools, and structured professional training to support clinical and forensic practice in this area.

INTRODUCTION:The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened concerns about malingering, particularly given its recognition as an occupational disease in several regions. This study evaluated the applicability of the Verifiability Approach (VA), a credibility assessment tool based on the principle that liars provide fewer verifiable details than truth tellers, to distinguish between honest reporters and malingerers of COVID-19 infection. METHODS:A total of 410 participants (51.5% female) completed an online survey via Google Forms. Participants who reported previous COVID-19 infection (n = 205) were assigned to either an informed honest (n = 104) or not-informed honest (n = 101) group, while those without prior infection (n = 205) were assigned to informed malingerers (n = 105) or not-informed malingerers (n = 100) conditions. Participants in the informed condition were briefed about the VA before writing their reports. RESULTS:Informed honest participants provided significantly more verifiable details than both uninformed honest participants and malingerers. The number of verifiable details and the ratio of verifiable details to total details were strongly associated with honesty when participants were informed about the VA, indicating that the information Protocol enhanced diagnostic accuracy. Perceived success was higher among honest participants, particularly those informed about the VA. No significant effects emerged for reported long COVID or fabricated symptoms, likely due to limited variability and low symptom familiarity. CONCLUSION:The findings support the VA's validity in distinguishing genuine from feigned symptom reports in health-related contexts. However, the fully online design, lack of factual verification, and potential for misreporting represent key limitations. Future studies should replicate these results in face-to-face or ecologically valid settings and extend the VA framework to the study of symptom dissimulation.

IntroductionMemory is a reconstructive process susceptible to external influences. The misinformation effect, extensively studied in eyewitness testimony, refers to the distortion of post-event information upon memory recall. However, limited research has examined how misinformation influences memory along with evaluation of an event involving physical touch.MethodsParticipants of the present study (N = 184) watched a video depicting a professor-student interaction including a physical touch (male professor/female student vs. female professor/male student), followed by a free and cued recall, and evaluative ratings. After 1 day, participants received either neutral or misleading post-event information (i.e., the professor working on teaching materials vs. the professor being under investigation for sexual harassment of students) and completed a second recall and rating session. Measures of interrogative suggestibility, working memory, and executive functioning were also assessed.ResultsResults showed that misinformation significantly increased memory errors and influenced evaluative judgments over time, particularly in the male professor/ female student condition. Participants exposed to misinformation judged the professor’s behavior as more inappropriate and severe, and recommended a harsher punishment. A high level of individual’s suggestibility was associated with lower perceived intentionality, independent of exposure to misinformation.DiscussionThese findings support the effect of misinformation on memory and judgments, highlighting critical implications for legal contexts.

Abstract Effective social decision-making requires understanding interpersonal dynamics involving moral content, a process supported by social cognition. When this ability is impaired, as in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), individuals may struggle to act appropriately, reducing social engagement and accelerating decline. The study investigated moral decision-making and social cognition in individuals with MCI and healthy controls ( N = 40; 20 per group). Participants completed tasks assessing Theory of Mind (ToM), emotion attribution, social situation understanding, and moral/conventional distinctions. Moral decisions were measured using interactive scenarios (sacrificial, real-life moral, and neutral), recording choices and response times (RTs). Additional measures included cognitive reserve, social engagement, and perceived social isolation. Results showed that individuals with MCI performed significantly worse than controls in identifying normative behaviours, with no group differences in other social cognition domains. Both groups made similar choices in moral decision-making tasks. However, individuals with MCI exhibited longer response times in morally salient scenarios, while no group differences emerged in neutral scenarios. This pattern may tentatively suggest greater processing demands in morally relevant contexts. Additionally, individuals with MCI reported lower levels of cognitive reserve and social engagement. These findings underscore the importance of assessing moral decision-making in clinical populations to support autonomy and social inclusion in ageing.

Malingering is a well-known phenomenon which has strong social implications. A person often adopts it during psychological evaluation and is particularly difficult to detect as the malingerer’s ability to simulate increases. The public primarily uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to educate themselves and gather information on various topics. Hence, it is crucial to assess whether LLMs can be a source for people learning how to deceive. The present study tested this issue by investigating whether ChatGPT 3.5 is able to malinger depression, one of the easiest and most commonly feigned conditions. We therefore collected 228 responses from humans and ChatGPT 3.5 (114 human participants vs ChatGPT responses) to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) with the instructions of either malingering depression or being honest. Our results showed that both humans and ChatGPT were able to malinger to suffer from depressive symptoms while illing the MMPI-2, although the validity scales of the MMPI-2 allowed us to identify malingered responses for both groups (humans and ChatGPT). In addition, humans and ChatGPT performance signi icantly differed.or people learning how to deceive without being caught since LLMs have shown to hold internal representation of many concepts. The present study tested this research question by investigating whether ChatGPT (i.e., 3.5 turbo) is able to malinger depression, one of the easiest and most commonly feigned conditions in different contexts (i.e., forensic, clinical, workplace). We, therefore, collected 228 responses from humans and ChatGPT (i.e., 114 humans’ responses and 114 ChatGPT responses) or people learning how to deceive without being caught since LLMs have shown to hold internal representation of many concepts. The present study tested this research question by investigating whether ChatGPT (i.e., 3.5 turbo) is able to malinger depression, one of the easiest and most commonly feigned conditions in different contexts (i.e., forensic, clinical, workplace). We, therefore, collected 228 responses from humans and ChatGPT (i.e., 114 humans’ responses and 114 ChatGPT responses)or people learning how to deceive without being caught since LLMs have shown to hold internal representation of many concepts. The present study tested this research question by investigating whether ChatGPT (i.e., 3.5 turbo) is able to malinger depression, one of the easiest and most commonly feigned conditions in different contexts (i.e., forensic, clinical, workplace). We, therefore, collected 228 responses from humans and ChatGPT (i.e., 114 humans’ responses and 114 ChatGPT responses)

Interpersonal synchronization represents a core dimension of supportive dyads, with a growing body of evidence demonstrating its role in fostering a positive, cooperative, and effective bond. This connection may be detected through measurable patterns of alignment in autonomic responses during interaction, leading to client change and cooperation with the clinician. Recent advances in wearable technology offer new opportunities for monitoring such physiological processes in real-world clinical settings; however, few studies have analysed synchronization via wearable devices across multiple sessions in supportive settings, such as university counseling services. The present study investigated physiological synchronization processes within 44 student-counselor dyads in a brief university counseling setting and explored their association with therapeutic alliance and clinical change. Multi-channel physiological data, specifically heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activity (EDA), were continuously recorded using non-invasive wristbands (Empatica E4) during the first, third, and fifth sessions. Synchronization processes were evaluated by integrating explicit self-report measures (assessing emotion regulation, therapeutic alliance, clinical symptoms, and general psychological well-being) with a set of physiological synchrony indices capturing coordination, alignment, and directionality. Physiological metrics captured across the three sessions were used to predict self-reported scores on the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised (WAI-SR), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-10), and the Psychological General Wellbeing Index (PGWBI). Analyses revealed that cardiac coordination - but not electrodermal activity - progressed alongside the development of the working alliance, whereas the remaining outcomes, despite showing overall clinical improvement across sessions, did not exhibit systematic convergence with the physiological metrics.

Background/Aim: Repressed memory and dissociative amnesia are contested concepts in psychology with serious ramifications in the courtroom. We investigated whether legal professionals (judges, prosecutors, and lawyers) had encountered these concepts in the legal arena, their beliefs concerning them, and gathered insights from their practical experiences. Method: A total of 77 legal professionals answered a survey about thier beliefs and practical experiences with repressed memories and dissociative amnesia in court. Results: Reported encountering cases involving repressed memory and dissociative amnesia, and that such cases have increased over time, particularly during 2010-2023. Interestingly, most legal professionals opposed setting time limits after which the retrieval of traumatic experiences should be considered unreliable. Moreover, many participants held inaccurate beliefs about traumatic memory. Conclusions: These findings highlight the critical need for improved education on traumatic memory loss among legal professionals and law students to ensure fair and accurate handling of cases involving such claims. Antecedentes/objetivo: La memoria reprimida y la amnesia disociativa son conceptos controvertidos en psicolog & iacute;a, con serias repercusiones en los tribunales. Hemos investigado si los operadores jur & iacute;dicos (jueces, fiscales y abogados) se han topado con estos conceptos en el terreno legal, sus creencias al respecto y su experiencia pr & aacute;ctica. M & eacute;todo: Un total de 77 operadores jur & iacute;dicos respondieron a una encuesta sobre creencias y experiencias pr & aacute;cticas en juzgados y tribunales con memorias reprimidas y amnesia disociativa. Resultados: Los operadores jur & iacute;dicos dicen que se han encontrado con casos sobre memoria reprimida y amnesia disociativa, aumentando tales casos con el tiempo, sobre todo en el periodo 2010-2023 y, lo que es m & aacute;s interesante, la mayor & iacute;a de los operadores jur & iacute;dicos se han opuesto a poner l & iacute;mites temporales, m & aacute;s all & aacute; de los cuales la recuperaci & oacute;n de experiencias traum & aacute;ticas podr & iacute;an ser consideradas poco fiables. Por otra parte, muchos operadores mantienen creencias inexactas sobre la memoria traum & aacute;tica. Conclusiones: Estos resultados destacan la necesidad imperiosa de mejorar la formaci & oacute;n de los operadores jur & iacute;dicos y estudiantes de Derecho en la p & eacute;rdida traum & aacute;tica de memoria para garantizar un manejo justo y preciso de los casos que presentan estas reclamaciones.

The subjective nature of pain complicates objective verification, often leading to noncredible symptom reports in compensable settings. Across two studies, we evaluated the Italian Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI-It) in distinguishing healthy individuals, simulators, and fibromyalgia patients. In Study 1, we assigned 958 participants to the honest (n = 482) or simulator group (n = 476). Simulators reported higher scores on genuine and pseudosymptoms. A cut score > 6 showed 92% specificity and 64% sensitivity; > 9 raised specificity to 95%. The SRSI-It identified 62% and 58% of simulators at > 6 and > 9, respectively, compared to 76% identified by the SIMS. In Study 2, we recruited 100 patients and paired each with a healthy control and a fibromyalgia simulator (N = 300). Simulators scored highest on pseudosymptoms, while patients scored higher than controls. The SRSI-It identified 73% and 61% of simulators at cut scores of > 6 and > 9, compared to 51% and 34% of patients and 15% and 13% of controls. The SRSI-It demonstrated sensitivity to simulated pain, suggesting its utility in distinguishing simulators from honest respondents in clinical and forensic settings. However, caution is warranted to avoid misclassifying genuine patients, highlighting the need for complementary tools.

Moral dilemmas arise when individuals must navigate conflicts between competing moral principles. Sacrificial dilemmas are widely used to examine factors influencing decision-making (DM). This study explored how proximity affects moral DM using computer-based interactive videos depicting variations of the Footbridge Dilemma, aiming to clarify how contextual factors shape moral evaluations. In Study 1, scenarios required varying levels of physical proximity between the decision-maker and the victim, mirroring real-world behavioural patterns. Participants' choices (utilitarian vs. deontological), response times (RTs), and emotional responses (factual and counterfactual) were analysed. Study 2 controlled for action type while manipulating only the visual representation of distance, allowing for an isolated examination of perceived proximity's impact. The findings suggest that significant differences in physical perceived distance influence moral choices, whereas minor variations do not meaningfully affect decisions. Counterfactual emotions emerged as key drivers of moral judgment, shaping participants' responses to dilemmas. Future research should extend these findings to non-hypothetical contexts. The implications span clinical practice, legal systems, and artificial intelligence, offering insights for both theoretical advancements and practical applications.

Incidental emotions, unrelated to the decision at hand, can significantly influence judgments and choices. The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of the trait and state emotions—specifically anger and guilt—in affecting evaluative judgments. A sample of 204 male participants was randomly assigned to one of the three induced-state emotion conditions (anger, guilt, or neutral). Participants read a forensic report describing an argument that ended with the offender’s decision to violently strike the opponent. The participants were asked to identify with the offender as much as possible and to judge the immoral and risky choice in terms of causality, responsibility, predictability, intentionality, severity, counterfactual thoughts, reversibility willingness, and anticipated emotions. Results showed that trait anger was linked to external causal attribution, judgment of others’ responsibility, and anticipated negative and positive emotions, while state anger was associated with less internal attribution and fewer upward counterfactual thoughts. Trait guilt was linked to a desire to reverse one’s decision and anticipated moral emotions, while state guilt correlated with internal attribution and judgments of severity. No interaction between trait and state emotions was found. These findings deepen our understanding of the role of incidental emotions in judgment and decision-making.

Studies so far have strived to define the characteristics of autobiographical memories accounting for their veracity and accuracy. Our study aimed to test whether it is possible to distinguish between true and fabricated autobiographical memories by adopting the Flashbulb Memory Checklist (FBMC), a validated tool used to assess the phenomenological features of emotional autobiographical memories. We asked participants to first recall a negative event truly experienced in the last 12-18 months and report a negative event that they never experienced. We calculated the FBMC scores (i.e., FBM Specificity, FBM Confidence) and checked whether these would help to distinguish between true and fabricated memories for negative events. Our findings showed that FBMC scores can be informative for memories' evaluation although they do not allow a proper discrimination between the two types of memories. The legal implications of our findings are discussed.

Being exposed to a traumatic event can engender repetitive, distressing, and interfering memories, also called intrusive memories. In addition, over time, people sometimes recall additional and new details of the traumatic experience. In the current study, we examined whether people could report intrusive memories for false details of a traumatic event. Participants (N = 39) completed nine study sessions. In the first session, they watched a video of a traumatic event (i.e., sexual assault) and performed a recognition task. From the second session to the eighth session, each day, participants reported their intrusive memories for the event by replying to some questions related to true and false event-related details. In the final session, we asked them to complete again the same recognition task from the first session. People reported having intrusive memories for false event-related details. These memories did not statistically differ in terms of vividness and distress as compared with intrusive memories for true details. However, overall, the reporting of both intrusive memories for true and false details decreased over time and did not influence the voluntary recall of the traumatic event. These findings are important for theoretical insights on the phenomenon of intrusive memories and the memory amplification effect.

INTRODUCTION:Fake news detection falls within the field of deception detection and, consequently, can be problematic due to no consensus on which cues increase the detection accuracy and because people's ability to detect is poor. METHODS:The present study aimed to investigate the criteria used by general population to establish if a given news item is true or fake by surveying a sample of the Italian population. We recruited 329 participants who had to reply to some questions on which criteria they used to conclude a given news item was true. The same questions were also asked to investigate the ones used for fake news judgments. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Our results showed that, overall, people use similar criteria (e.g., reliability of the source and presence of scientific references) to conclude that news is true versus fake, although their use rates differ for true and fake news.

With the onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic era, university students have been confronted with heightened mental health challenges. In response, educational institutions have attempted to support students by offering online counseling services, aimed to promote their well-being. The present study examines the extent to which a psychological counseling intervention conducted during the COVID- 19 pandemic is associated with significant variations of self-reported psychological well-being, emotion regulation, and self-efficacy among undergraduate students at the University of Bari. An online survey assessing general health state, emotion regulation, and perceived self-efficacy was administered to 86 university students (70% female) who sought access to the Counseling service, before (T0) and after (T1) a psychological counseling intervention consisting in 5 sessions lasting 50 min each. The findings showed a significant increase in levels of well-being and self-efficacy as well as an increased resort to functional emotion regulation strategies. These results underscore the crucial role played by university psychological counseling services in addressing the psychological distress experienced by students.

Research has shown that lying can affect memory differently depending on the type of strategy (e.g., false denials, feigning amnesia, fabrication). At present, no studies have investigated how using different strategies simultaneously while replying to questions concerning the event impacts on memory. Hence, in the present experiment, participants watched a mock crime video, then they either told the truth (i.e., truth-telling group) or lied about the crime by adopting the three deceptive strategies (i.e., mixed lying group). We also included a third group that did not answer any question (i.e., delayed testing-only control group). After one-week, all participants provided an honest account of their memory for the interview and the crime, along with memory and belief ratings. Lying exerted an undermining effect on memory. That is, liars reported an impaired recall (i.e., fewer correct details and higher commissions) of the event and the interview as compared with those in the truth-telling group. However, the delayed testing-only control group reported a higher impairment than liars and truth-tellers. These findings provide insightful information on the possible mechanisms behind the effects of lying on memory (e.g., lack of rehearsal).

Research on malingering shows that symptom overreporting is more frequent when financial compensation is involved, particularly in whiplash cases where symptoms are subjective and difficult to verify. Individuals motivated by gain often score higher on symptom validity tests, suggesting that they may intentionally exaggerate symptoms for insurance or legal purposes. To investigate this phenomenon, we administered the Italian version of the Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI-It) to 594 participants (65.8% women), randomly assigned to one of three instructional conditions: (1) Simulators with Compensation (n = 185), instructed to feign whiplash symptoms for financial gain; (2) Pure Simulators (n = 183), asked to simulate without monetary incentive; and (3) Honest Respondents (n = 226), instructed to respond truthfully. Results showed that compensation simulators reported significantly more pseudosymptoms and genuine symptoms than honest participants, supporting the role of financial incentives in amplifying symptom overreporting. Pure simulators also exaggerated symptoms, but to a lesser degree. The ratio of pseudosymptoms to genuine symptoms distinguished simulators from honest respondents, although it did not differ significantly between the two simulator groups. These findings underscore the influence of external incentives on symptom presentation and support the utility of the SRSI-It in detecting feigning. However, high false positive rates raise concerns about cutoff specificity, warranting further validation.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional or prodromal stage of dementia in which autonomies are largely preserved (autonomies are not particularly affected). However, this condition may entail a depletion of decision-making (DM) abilities likely due to a gradual deterioration of the prefrontal cortex and subcortical brain areas underlying cognitive-emotional processing. Given the clinical implications of a decline in self-determination observed in some MCI sufferers, the present systematic review was aimed at investigating the literature addressing DM processes in patients with MCI, consistent with PRISMA guidelines. The six online databases inquired yielded 1689 research articles that were screened and then assessed based on eligibility and quality criteria. As a result, 41 studies were included and classified following the PICOS framework. Overall, patients with MCI who underwent neuropsychological assessment were found to be slightly or moderately impaired in DM abilities related to financial management, medical adherence, specific cognitive performances, risky conditions, and especially uncertain life circumstances. Comparative cross-sectional studies indicated not only mid-stage cognitive functioning in MCI but also borderline or deficit DM patterns evaluated through different tasks and procedures. Further research addressing MCI profiles suggested an association between explicit memory, executive functions, and DM performance. These findings highlight the diversity of MCI manifestations, in addition to the critical importance of DM features and correlates in patients' daily functioning. Due to a lack of consensus on both MCI and DM, this review paper sought to shed light on assessment and intervention strategies accounting for the interplay between emotion, motivation, and learning to foster DM in cognitively impaired individuals.

The Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) is a novel tool designed to detect symptom overreporting and other forms of noncredible responding. Unlike existing scales, the SRSI includes genuine and pseudosymptoms scales covering cognitive, affective, motor, pain, and post-traumatic stress disorder domains. The present study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the Italian Version of the SRSI (SRSI-It), in particular, its factor structure, reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and diagnostic accuracy. Data from 1180 healthy participants showed a hierarchical structure with higher-order constructs for genuine symptoms and pseudosymptoms, each comprising five subscales. The SRSI-It showed a strong convergent validity with the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology and discriminant validity through low correlations with the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised. Receiver operating characteristic analysis determined cut scores of 6 (95% specificity) and 9 (98% specificity) for pseudosymptoms, with a Ratio Index score of 0.289 (82% specificity). In summary, the SRSI-It appears to be a promising tool for identifying symptom exaggeration in clinical and forensic contexts, ultimately enhancing the quality and reliability of evaluations in these contexts.

Research into individual differences in deception detection and judgment brought into question the existence of a good liar-catcher. The current study aimed to investigate the role of trait empathy and emotional intelligence (EI) ability in detecting unemotional lies. One hundred and fifty volunteers were given the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, then they watched a sequence of 14 interviews concerning truthful vs. deceptive holidays. For each videotaped interview, detection accuracy, detection confidence, and detection criteria were assessed. Results confirmed the chance-like ability to detect deception. The empathic trait of perspective-taking and the EI ability to perceive emotions predicted detection accuracy, albeit with a modest effect. Receivers' judgment accuracy was principally determined by the sender to be evaluated, confirming that detection accuracy is mainly explained by the sender, rather than the receiver's characteristics. Confidence appeared unrelated to detection accuracy.