Trends in Cognitive Sciences
ReviewCauses and consequences of mind perception
Section snippets
Mind perception in context
Whether or not something has a mind is sometimes settled by vote. Five US Supreme Court Justices decided that corporations have minds that can be expressed, and therefore deserve the right of free speech. The remaining four justices disagreed, saying that “corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires” [1]. Considering non-human animals, the majority of the Spanish parliament believed that evidence for the presence of mind in captive chimpanzees was strong
Perceiver
The capacity to reason about minds is an impressive tool that nearly all humans possess. People use tools when they serve immediate goals, and thinking about another's mind is useful for achieving two basic goals in everyday life: understanding, predicting, or controlling another's behavior, and developing a social connection with another agent [13]. Factors that trigger these two should therefore increase the tendency to perceive minds in others.
Causal uncertainly is one of the basic triggers
Perceiver
Perceiving mental states in another entity matters to the perceiver for three main reasons. First, perceiving mental states in another entity intensifies the perceiver's psychological experience of events. A seemingly random event might have little importance, but the same event intended by another could seem more significant because it comes with broader implications – intentional events are more likely to be recurrent, and demand a response. A tree branch that another person drops on you is
Mind matters
The greatest divide in social life is between the direct experience of one's own mind and the apparent experiences of others’ minds (Box 2). Nearly all adults have the capacity to bridge this divide and reason about the minds of others, but having the capacity and using it are two different things. The recent advances highlighted here focus on the triggers of mind perception and why mind perception matters, generating a broad array of topics for future research (Box 3). Understanding mind
References (79)
The cognitive basis of a biological disorder – autism
Trends Neurosci.
(1991)It's no accident: our bias for intentional explanations
Cognition
(2008)- et al.
The human function compunction: teleological explanation in adults
Cognition
(2009) - et al.
Excluded from humanity: the dehumanizing effects of social ostracism
J. Exp. Soc. Psychol.
(2010) Crime and punishment: distinguishing the roles of causal and intentional analyses in moral judgment
Cognition
(2008)- et al.
Nobody's watching? Subtle cues affect generosity in an anonymous economic game
Evol. Hum. Behav.
(2005) - et al.
Torture and judgments of guilt
J. Exp. Soc. Psychol.
(2010) - et al.
Mysteries of morality
Cognition
(2009) Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence
Trends Cogn. Sci.
(2007)- et al.
Self-projection and the brain
Trends Cogn. Sci.
(2007)
Standing Bear is a Person: the True Story of a Native American's Quest for Justice
Kinds of minds
The Illusion of Conscious Will
Mind perception
Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?
Behav. Brain Sci.
Dimensions of mind perception
Science
Dehumanization: an integrative review
Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev.
Animals and androids: implicit associations between social categories and nonhumans
Psychol. Sci.
A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism
Psychol. Rev.
The existential theory of mind
Rev. Gen. Psychol.
Time to get a new mountain? The role of function in children's conceptions of natural kinds
Cognition
Inferring design: evidence of a preference for teleological explanations in patients with Alzheimer's disease
Psychol. Sci.
God and the Government: testing a compensatory control mechanism for the support of external systems
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
Randomness, attributions of arousal, and belief in god
Psychol. Sci.
Belief in supernatural agents in the face of death
Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull.
The role of control in attributing intentional agency to inanimate objects
J. Cogn. Cult.
When I need a human: motivational determinants of anthropomorphism
Soc. Cogn.
Effect of perspective taking on the cognitive representation of persons: a merging of self and other
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
Taking another person's perspective increases self-referential neural processing
Psychol. Sci.
Getting a cue: the need to belong and enhanced sensitivity to social cues
Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull.
Creating social connection through inferential reproduction: loneliness and perceived agency in gadgets, gods, and greyhounds
Psychol. Sci.
Turning to God in the face of ostracism: effects of social exclusion on religiousness
Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull.
Negativity bias in attribution of external agency
J. Exp. Psychol. Gen.
The concept of intentional action: a case study in the .uses of folk psychology
Phil. Stud.
Blaming God for our pain: human suffering and the divine mind
Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev.
Cited by (457)
Virtually human: anthropomorphism in virtual influencer marketing
2024, Journal of Retailing and Consumer ServicesThe positive effect of artificial intelligence technology transparency on digital endorsers: Based on the theory of mind perception
2024, Journal of Retailing and Consumer ServicesWhen does “no” mean no? Insights from sex robots
2024, CognitionResponsibility gaps and self-interest bias: People attribute moral responsibility to AI for their own but not others' transgressions
2024, Journal of Experimental Social PsychologySharing information with AI (versus a human) impairs brand trust: The role of audience size inferences and sense of exploitation
2024, International Journal of Research in MarketingThe role of external factors in affect-sharing and their neural bases
2024, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews