Do Our Interpretations Influence Our Desire to Live?

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Imagine walking down the street. You say “hello” to a friend, but they walk past without so much as a nod. Are they upset with you? Or did the rush of traffic just drown out your voice?

If our interpretations are consistently biased, and we repeatedly select negative interpretations of ambiguous social events like this one, we might start to feel anxious or depressed.¹ This may be especially true if our negative interpretations are inflexible, and don’t change when we learn new information, like we might if that friend texts us later about how loud the traffic can be in New York City.

In a recent study,² we investigated whether being biased or inflexible when interpreting social situations can make people more likely to think about suicide. To answer our question, we recruited 200 people to interpret many ambiguous social situations. We measured how often these people selected negative interpretations for these events, and how often they changed their negative interpretations when new evidence supporting a more positive interpretation came to light. We also asked these people to tell us whether they believed they were a burden to others in their lives, and whether they believed they were socially disconnected from others. Previous studies have linked these beliefs to thoughts of suicide.³

Participants in our study who more frequently selected negative interpretations also tended to experience more thoughts of suicide. People whose negative interpretations were less flexible also tended to experience more thoughts of suicide, likely because they more often believed that they were a burden to others (but not that they were more socially disconnected). Our findings imply that when people do not sufficiently update their negative interpretations of social situations in the face of new information, they may begin, or continue, to believe that they are a burden to others, which may make them think about suicide.

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Knowing how inflexible and biased interpretations could influence suicide ideation could help researchers and clinicians prevent suicide. Each year, approximately 800,000 people die by suicide. Knowing who might be thinking of suicide could help us protect these individuals. However, this is a difficult task: People might not want to admit that they have thoughts of suicide. Our study suggests that clinicians should take extra care when determining whether people with more inflexible or biased interpretations are experiencing suicide ideation. Our study also suggests that individuals who inflexibly revise interpretations may benefit from innovative cognitive training procedures that encourage more positive and more flexible interpretations of ambiguous social situations. Especially when implemented in a personalized fashion, these tools hold great potential to augment current prevention strategies and help reduce feelings of burdensomeness and decrease the tragedy of suicide.

Michael V. Bronstein, Ph.D, and Jonas Everaert, Ph.D., contributed to this post.

If you or someone you love is contemplating suicide, seek help immediately. For help 24/7 contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK, or the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. To find a therapist near you, see the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.