Adults are intuitive mind-body dualists.

Abstract

In the present research, we tested the hypotheses that (a) adults are intuitive mind-body dualists, (b) that this belief can be considered a default, and (c) that it is partially explained by essentialistic reasoning about the nature of the mind. Over 8 studies, using various thought experiment paradigms, participants reliably ascribed to a physically duplicated being a greater retention of physical than of mental properties. This difference was unrelated to whether or not this being was given a proper name (Study 1b) and was only found for entities that were considered to actually possess a mind (Study 1c). Further, we found that an intuitive belief in mind-body dualism may in fact be considered a default: Taxing participants' cognitive resources (Study 2) or priming them with an intuitive (vs. analytical) thinking style (Studies 3a and 3b) both increased dualistic beliefs. In a last set of studies, we found that beliefs in mind-body dualism are indeed related to essentialistic reasoning about the mind. When a living being was reassembled from its original molecules rather than recreated from new molecules, dualistic beliefs were significantly reduced (Studies 4a and 4b). Thus, results of the present research indicate that, despite any acquired scientific knowledge about the neurological origins of mental life, most adults remain "essentialistic mind-body dualists" at heart.

Ovarian Tissue Cryopreservation / Transplantation for Social Reasons: Between (“Good”) Medicalization and Medical Treatment.

“…If the goals of medicine would be considered in a narrow conception, as not being inclusive of addressing the social roots of disease, then the next step is the risk of getting even narrower, focusing only on bodily disorders and excluding the mental ones, thus leading to accepting the socalled "mental-body dualism" [105] that is an unacceptable assumption in the context of modern bioethics, though 'most adults remain '"essentialistic mind-body dualists" at heart' as Forstmann and Burgmer argue in their study [111]. …”

Lay Judgments of Mental Health Treatment Options

“…People have been shown outside the health domain to be inherent dualists, endorsing a separation between physically and mentally based phenomena. 32,33 Applied to health, a single symptom can be judged as to whether it reflects a problem originating from a person’s body (e.g., medical problem) or from a person’s mind (e.g., mental problem). Such medical-mental attributions will not necessarily be accurate 10–12 but will nevertheless be influential.…”

Consciousness & Time: A Time-Based Model of the Evolution of Consciousness

“…Research has demonstrated that we are intuitive dualists, separation being a default strategy [3] [4]. Various thought experiments were employed by Forstmann & Burgmer [3] to assess how we cognitively process the mind and body.…”

“…Research has demonstrated that we are intuitive dualists, separation being a default strategy [3] [4]. Various thought experiments were employed by Forstmann & Burgmer [3] to assess how we cognitively process the mind and body. Physical properties were consistently seen as being retained compared to mental properties, and under conditions that taxed cognitive resources or primed them with an intuitive thinking style, mind-body dualistic beliefs were intensified [3].…”

“…Various thought experiments were employed by Forstmann & Burgmer [3] to assess how we cognitively process the mind and body. Physical properties were consistently seen as being retained compared to mental properties, and under conditions that taxed cognitive resources or primed them with an intuitive thinking style, mind-body dualistic beliefs were intensified [3]. The authors indicate that despite scientific advances in understanding the neurological origins of mental life, we are still essentially mind-body dualists.…”