Conversationally Attuned: Links Between Interpersonal Linguistic Synchrony and Social Functioning Across the Early-Psychosis Spectrum

Psychiatry. 2026 May 8:1-16. doi: 10.1080/00332747.2026.2660514. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Social dysfunction and language abnormalities are core features of psychotic disorders that interfere with communication. Language studies in psychosis often utilize paradigms involving conversational exchange yet analyze only participant speech rather than understanding the broader participant-examiner discourse. Notably, humans naturally align their language to be more similar to their conversation partners during interaction-a process sometimes called language style matching (LSM). As individuals with psychosis face significant interpersonal challenges, understanding LSM in the context of social interaction is an important and unaddressed area of research.

METHODS: A total of 101 early psychosis-spectrum participants (early psychosis [EP;n = 24], high schizotypy [HS;n = 44], unaffected controls [UC;n = 33]) completed an audio-recorded social interaction task and an assessment of real-world social functioning. Transcribed speech from participant-examiner dyads underwent LSM analyses to assess interpersonal linguistic synchrony. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses examined associations among LSM, performance on the social interaction task, and social functioning.

RESULTS: LSM was positively correlated with real-world social functioning and performance on the social task in EP and real-world social functioning in UC, but not HS. LSM further accounted for additional variance in social functioning, over-and-above performance on the social interaction task and relevant clinical and demographic variables (diagnostic status, age, sex).

CONCLUSIONS: These results provide preliminary evidence that LSM during interpersonal interaction is linked to social dysfunction. Critically, LSM may measure features of interaction and social outcomes that are not captured by standard assessments. Collectively, conversational exchange is a promising area for future work assessing social dysfunction in emerging adults across the early psychosis-spectrum.

PMID:42102254 | DOI:10.1080/00332747.2026.2660514