Theory of Mind

Evolutionary Emergence

Strategic deception is uniquely human, insofar that other species are thought to lack the capacity to model the mental states of conspecifics. Nevertheless, some nonhuman primates and birds (for example, corvids) have been documented as engaging in tactical forms of deception. The nature of such deception mostly involves information concealment rather than actively attempting to instill false beliefs in another. For example, corvids routinely cache (hide) food in one location in the presence of a competitor and will then recache in a new location when the competitor has moved. Such forms of deception suggest a sophisticated ability to navigate complex social environments and seem to require an understanding that, at the very least, others have unique visual perspectives and goals. It has been suggested that such actions correspond to precursors for theory [Page 884]of mind reasoning, but others caution that such findings only demonstrate learned behavioral contingencies or rudimentary social reasoning and, as such, do not warrant claims of explicit mental state awareness.

Developmental Considerations

The area in which deception and theory of mind has been most widely explored is that of child development. A great deal of focus has been on whether children's emerging propensities for deception, as well as the complexity of their lies, are related to their development of theory of mind. Existing evidence suggests that children's ability to engage in deception is directly related to the degree to which they understand that others are able to see something they cannot see (first level), to understanding the thoughts of others and possible inferences that can be drawn from this understanding (second level).

To evaluate various levels of belief reasoning, researchers typically employ tasks that examine children's abilities to attribute false beliefs to another. A common example is with an “unexpected change” scenario. Children are given a story in which a character witnesses an object being placed in a box. This person leaves the room, at which time the object is switched to a new location. When the main character reenters the room, children are asked where they think the person will go to retrieve the object. If a child understands that the person has a false belief about the object's location (because the person was absent when the object was switched), the child should indicate the original location. Many versions of this and similar tasks have been developed, varying in terms of the memory and language demands needed to complete the task, as well as the complexity of the mental states that need to be considered.

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