Assessing Leaders at a Distanceaware of rank and power and superiority or inferiority, they are often
jealous of and rivalrous with people in power. Their wary hypervigi-
lance and readiness to retaliate often generate fear and uneasiness in
others. One treads carefully around a paranoid, "walks on eggshells,"
lest he or she become upset.
Thus pervasive suspiciousness is at the core of paranoid individu-
als and colors every aspect of their behavior and thinking. The suspi-
cious cognitive style of the paranoid has a number of formal charac-
teristics, of which Shapiro (1967) considers rigidity the most
fundamental one. Paranoids look at the world with fixed expecta-
tions. They know the Truth in advance and accordingly know what
they are looking for. They will examine data extremely carefully,
"seeing through" what does not confirm their expectations and seiz-
ing on the elements of the data that confirm their fixed beliefs. This
rigidity, as Shapiro notes, has the quality of directedness. Their ideas
are not the mere product of an overactive imagination but are the
result of disproportionate attention to confirmatory details that are
the result of intense and penetrating observation. What is the under-
lying premise that is being confirmed by this directed attention? It
is the premise of external danger. Thus the essential cognitive feature
of the paranoid is a rigid, intentional search for external danger. Because
the premise of external danger is a fixed conclusion in search of
confirmatory evidence, there is at the same time intentional disregard
of disconfirming evidence.
In addition to the qualities of rigidity and intentionality, another
key quality of paranoid individuals that influences their cognitive
style is hyperalertness and hypersensitivity. Always on the alert for dan-
ger, their antennae constantly sweeping the horizon for signs of
threat, paranoids will mobilize their rigid intentional cognitive
mode in the face of anything unusual or out of the ordinary. Thus
anything surprising is extremely distressing to an individual with
this mind-set. Their world has been disturbed, their structure
undone. A goal of the searching that is mobilized is to bring that
which was out of control under control.
Clearly, insofar as paranoid individuals intentionally seek out only
data that confirm their premise of external danger and systematically
exclude evidence to the contrary, their evaluation of reality is often
skewed. In effect, their views of external reality are distorted by their