Socially evaluative contexts facilitate mentalizing

Brandon M Woo; Enda Tan; Francis L Yuen; J Kiley Hamlin

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2022.10.003

Socially evaluative contexts facilitate mentalizing

Trends Cogn Sci. 2023 Jan;27(1):17-29. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.10.003. Epub 2022 Nov 7.

Authors

Brandon M Woo¹, Enda Tan², Francis L Yuen³, J Kiley Hamlin³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, 02138; Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Cambridge, MA, USA, 02139. Electronic address: bmwoo@g.harvard.edu.
² Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4; Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA, 20742.
³ Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4.

PMID: 36357300
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.10.003

Abstract

Our ability to understand others' minds stands at the foundation of human learning, communication, cooperation, and social life more broadly. Although humans' ability to mentalize has been well-studied throughout the cognitive sciences, little attention has been paid to whether and how mentalizing differs across contexts. Classic developmental studies have examined mentalizing within minimally social contexts, in which a single agent seeks a neutral inanimate object. Such object-directed acts may be common, but they are typically consequential only to the object-seeking agent themselves. Here, we review a host of indirect evidence suggesting that contexts providing the opportunity to evaluate prospective social partners may facilitate mentalizing across development. Our article calls on cognitive scientists to study mentalizing in contexts where it counts.

Keywords: cognitive development; cooperation; mentalizing; partner choice; social evaluation.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Communication
Humans
Learning
Mentalization*
Theory of Mind*