Acute technostress, schizotypal traits, and visual illusion perception in the general population

The present study investigated the impact of acute technostress (i.e., stress induced by technology - here, computer glitches) and schizotypy on visual illusions, including the Müller-Lyer, Ebbinghaus, Poggendorff, and Ponzo illusions. While previous research has examined perceptual anomalies in schizophrenia and schizotypy, the role of stress in perceptual distortions has been overlooked until recently. In particularly, its acute effects are unknown. Healthy participants completed four visual illusion tasks under two conditions: a standard condition and a technostress-inducing condition involving unpredictable computer glitches. The Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) was recorded as a physiological measure of stress and levels of schizotypy were assessed using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). The interpersonal schizotypal subscale was negatively associated with the strength of the Ponzo and Ebbinghaus illusions in both stress conditions while the strength of Poggendorff illusion decreased in both stress conditions with the cognitive-perceptual schizotypy subscale. In addition, a positive relationship emerged between the Müller-Lyer illusion and GSR under the technostress condition. This relationship was not present in the condition without technostress. Conversely, there was a trend for the Poggendorff illusion to increase with GSR in the condition without technostress. This relationship was not present in the condition with technostress. These findings reveal how acute technostress and different components of schizotypy can exert different effects on different illusions, presumably because different mechanisms underlie the different illusions. Our study highlights the relevance of everyday technological stressors for visual perception and underscore the need for future studies to clarify further how stress, schizotypal traits, and perceptual inference are linked mechanistically.