Can the “Shotgun Wedding” of Openness and Psychoticism Be Justified Based on Apophenia as the Disposition to Commit False-Positive Errors?

Abstract: Apophenia – the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns in randomness – has been proposed as a unifying framework for Openness and Psychoticism. While there is substantial evidence supporting a positive correlation between apophenia and susceptibility to psychotic-like experiences, the hypothesized connection to Openness lacks empirical support. In the present study, the association between apophenia and personality traits, particularly Openness and Psychoticism, was examined in three studies. Adult participants from two Serbian ( N = 127 and N = 256) and one German community sample ( N = 384) completed the HEXACO-PI to measure six personality traits, a Disintegration (Psychoticism) inventory assessing proneness to psychotic-like experiences, and several measures of apophenia. Application of various analytical tools revealed a robust positive relationship between apophenia and Disintegration in all studies. Openness showed either no significant or even a negative association with apophenia. These results cast doubt on the proposed unified role of apophenia in conceptualizing Openness and Psychoticism as manifestations along a shared personality continuum.