Schizotypy is associated with a fear-specific bias in recognising dynamic facial expressions

Schizotypy describes personality traits and subclinical psychosis-related experiences that vary across the general population, yet their relationship with facial expression recognition across motion and intensity remains unclear. Examining these factors may reveal social-perceptual differences not evident with static or high-intensity expressions alone. We analysed data from 226 adults who identified six facial emotional expressions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise) displayed by static and dynamic faces at low, moderate, and high intensity. Schizotypy was modelled dimensionally using total Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire scores. Higher schizotypy was associated with relatively better recognition of fear than of anger, disgust, sadness, and surprise overall. For dynamic expressions, higher schizotypy was also associated with fewer fear-to-surprise misclassifications, more surprise-to-fear misclassifications, and a more liberal threat-response criterion. Follow-up analyses indicated that the threat-bias effect was primarily driven by fear and reflected response bias rather than sensitivity. Subscale analyses were broadly consistent with the total-score findings but were less differentiated. These findings suggest that higher schizotypy is associated with a selective tendency to resolve ambiguous, dynamically unfolding expressions toward fear and threat. Understanding this tendency is important, because heightened sensitivity to subtle signs of threat may shape social interpretations, everyday interactions, and avoidance behaviours.