Character and theory of mind: an integrative approach

Westra, Evan

doi:10.1007/s11098-017-0908-3

Cited by 27 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 109 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…7 Although there are good reasons for thinking that the structure of stereotypes is not based solely on statistical associations (Hammond and Cimpian, forthcoming; del Pinal and Spaulding, forthcoming) 8 For a more detailed critique of folk psychological pluralism, see Westra (2017).…”

Section: Stereotyping and The Mindreading Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several authors have used HPC to model theory of mind (Csibra, 2008;Hohwy and Palmer, 2014;Hudson et al, 2016;Kilner et al, 2007;Koster-Hale and Saxe, 2013;Ondobaka et al, 2015;Palmer et al, 2015;Westra, 2017). The key observation underlying this approach is that we tend to represent intentional actions hierarchically.…”

Section: The Action-prediction Hierarchymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In practice, this will mean that the extent to which we revise our initial, stereotypic models in response to stereotype-inconsistent information will depend upon our goals (D. L. Ames and Fiske 2013;Spaulding 2017;Westra 2017). If our plans happen to depend upon accurately representing an individual's mental states (say, if we think we are likely to 14 In an HPC framework, estimations of expected utility would need to rely upon affect-based, interoceptive predictions about the somatic and hedonic consequences of a prospective scenario (Barrett, 2017; but see Carruthers (2017) for a non-hedonist account of the function of valence in prospection).…”

Section: Stereotypes Goals and Error-driven Updatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I will propose that the source of this relationship can be traced to a core mentalistic feature of stereotype content, namely, the fact that stereotypes are structured around attributions of character traits. I will then introduce a model of action prediction that shows how character-trait attribution can influence how we represent other agents' mental states, and show how this explains the stereotypemindreading relation (Westra 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Stereotypes, theory of mind, and the action–prediction hierarchy

Westra

2017

Synthese

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Both mindreading and stereotyping are forms of social cognition that play a pervasive role in our everyday lives, yet too little attention has been paid to the question of how these two processes are related. This paper offers a theory of the influence of stereotyping on mental-state attribution that draws on hierarchical predictive coding accounts of action prediction. It is argued that the key to understanding the relation between stereotyping and mindreading lies in the fact that stereotypes centrally involve character-trait attributions, which play a systematic role in the action-prediction hierarchy. On this view, when we apply a stereotype to an individual, we rapidly attribute to her a cluster of generic character traits on the basis of her perceived social group membership. These traits are then used to make inferences about that individual's likely beliefs and desires, which in turn inform inferences about her behavior.

show abstract

Section: Stereotyping and The Mindreading Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Action-prediction Hierarchymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Stereotypes Goals and Error-driven Updatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Stereotypes, theory of mind, and the action–prediction hierarchy

Westra

2017

Synthese

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Importantly, these cognitive processes deeply influence how we interpret others' behavior and how we expect them to behave in the future or in counterfactual scenarios. This research suggests that stereotypes, character traits, and social biases play an important role in mindreading (Spaulding, ; Westra, , ).…”

Section: Going Beyond Beliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindreading beyond belief: A more comprehensive conception of how we understand others

Spaulding

2018

Philosophy Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Traditional theories of mindreading tend to focus exclusively on attributing beliefs and desires to other agents.The literature emphasizes belief attribution in particular, with numerous debates over when children develop the concept of belief, how neurotypical adult humans attribute beliefs to others, whether non-human animals have the concept of belief, etc. I describe a growing school of thought that the heavy focus on belief leaves traditional theories of mindreading unable to account for the complexity, diversity, and messiness of ordinary social interactions. I present a few broader, more comprehensive conceptions of mindreading that take into account how stereotypes, character trait inferences, social biases, and more influence how we understand and interact with others. These broader conceptions of mindreading promise to be more empirically adequate and have fruitful application to various debates in philosophy and cognitive science. | INTRODUCTIONIn our ordinary lives, we regularly think about what others are thinking and doing. I try to figure out why my mother never picks up on my sometimes not-so-subtle signals that I need to work rather than chat, I wonder what my daughter's preschool teacher thinks about her, or I think about how a friend will handle an impending divorce. We think about others ' beliefs, desires, intentions, preferences, character traits, values, etc. all the time in part because we find this intrinsically interesting but also because we find this useful for understanding what others' will do and perhaps how we can manipulate the situation for our own purposes. Our ordinary ways of understanding what others think and do is called folk psychology. The specific practice of attributing mental states to others in order to explain ---

show abstract

The Key Practice, Building and Sharing Stories and Social Understandings: The Intrinsic Value of Narrative

Deane

Somasundaran

Lawless

et al. 2019

ETS Research Report Series

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One of the major goals of the English Language Arts is to teach students to read, understand, and write narratives. This report examines the ways in which the skills that support narrative develop during the school years, outlines a model of narrative as a “key practice” in which the ability to model social situations supports narrative understanding, and feeds into the ability to use stories to reflect about stories and the classes of social situations they represent. Narrative is important precisely because it helps people develop their understanding of the social world and reason about their place in it. Assessments of narrative reading and writing need to take this broader construct into account.

show abstract

Character and theory of mind: an integrative approach

Cited by 27 publications

References 109 publications

Stereotypes, theory of mind, and the action–prediction hierarchy

Stereotypes, theory of mind, and the action–prediction hierarchy

Mindreading beyond belief: A more comprehensive conception of how we understand others

The Key Practice, Building and Sharing Stories and Social Understandings: The Intrinsic Value of Narrative

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About