Various Ways to Understand Other Minds: Towards a Pluralistic Approach to the Explanation of Social Understanding. (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fiebich, Anika; Coltheart, Max
• Is Part Of: Mind & language. Volume 30:Number 3(2015:Jun.)
• Page Start: 235
• Page End: 258
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Thought and thinking -- Periodicals; Language and languages -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 153.42
• DOI: 10.1111/mila.12079
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0268-1064

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="mila12079-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p id="mila12079-para-0001">In this article, we propose a pluralistic approach to the explanation of social understanding that integrates literature from social psychology with the theory of mind debate. Social understanding in everyday life is achieved in various ways. As a rule of thumb we propose that individuals make use of whatever procedure is cognitively least demanding to them in a given context. Aside from theory and simulation, associations of behaviors with familiar agents play a crucial role in social understanding. This role has been neglected so far. We illustrate the roles of fluency and associations in social understanding in false belief tasks.</p> </abstract>