Strategies for deploying theory of mind in adults: theory vs simulation is not either/or

Abstract

Finding measures of theory of mind (ToM) that are robustly related to contemporary measures of personality, we developed 10 scenarios reflecting either folk theory or simulation approaches to ToM deployment. Participants responded to scenarios in one of three formats: (1) by endorsing different descriptions representing possible thought processes of a scenario's protagonist, (2) by guessing whether protagonists had used folk theory or simulation strategy, or (3) by rating the protagonist's use of both strategies using Likert scales. Persons who used the second two rating formats received descriptions of the concepts of folk theory and simulation. Females and those rating possible thought processes, specifically format (1), had significantly greater tendency to endorse folk theory models than did males or those who simply selected theory or simulation (2). Moreover, participants who had more siblings or who fell late in family birth order were more inclined to select folk theory strategies. Individually, six of ten simple-choice scenarios (2) discriminated between theory and simulation strategies. Those scenarios that favoured folk theory had significantly more words and involved power differentials between protagonists and others, while those favouring simulation had fewer words and parity in the depicted relationships. Across all scenarios, the Likert data (3) suggested that participants rated protagonists as using both strategies equally.

Keywords:

• theory of mind
• personality
• folk theory
• simulation