Interpreting signals in other people's behavior to sense things about them and to infer things about their world

Abstract

In this article, we propose a new framework for investigating how accurately and by what process people read others' minds—a process that requires perceivers to make a retrodictive inference. In this context, we discuss the value of a novel methodological approach that complements the conceptual framework. This framework is formulated on the basis of a series of empirical articles emerging over the past few years in which the ideas appear in nascent form. Retrodiction is the process in which, on observing a person's behavior (often but not exclusively a facial expression), people are equipped not only to sense the underlying inner state but also to infer the event that caused that inner state. Indeed, the goal of mindreading need not always be to identify an inner state explicitly but to infer the event that caused the inner state. Doing so is adaptive in that it permits access to a more expansive view of the world through the lens of another mind. This view of mindreading naturally leads to a reconsideration of methods that are fit for purpose and leads to testable hypotheses.

Autism and the double empathy problem: Implications for development and mental health

“…cause of their behaviour, Teoh et al, 2017;Wu et al, 2019). For example, on observing a person in a bar behaving in a gregarious and uninhibited manner we might infer that they feel cheerful and tipsy, perhaps, we further infer, because they imbibed some intoxicating beverages.…”

“…But surely, we could simply ask the person (the target) what their inner state is and then observe whether another person’s (the perceiver’s) inference tallies with this (Ickes, 2003). The trouble is that what a target declares as their inner state is not a reliable source of information, as we cannot be certain of the value of introspection in this matter (Wu et al , 2019): Implicitly, we would be assuming that the target knows their own inner state through introspection and we would therefore effectively be assuming that introspection is a valid source of information.…”

“…Our research, in comparison, invites perceivers to interpret signals in the behaviour of targets to infer things such as what a person said to the target (Cassidy, Ropar, et al , 2014, 2015), what the target is looking at (e.g. a facial expression or a positive/negative image—Kang et al , 2018; Teoh et al , 2017), what the target is thinking (Valanides et al , 2017), and the status of the target’s social context (whether they are accompanied or alone—Teoh et al , 2017)—see Wu et al (2019) for a summary. These inferences qualify as ‘retrodictive mind reading’ (Gallese & Goldman, 1998), which refers to the process of interpreting signals in another person’s behaviour to infer their inner state (the proximal cause of their behaviour) and perhaps the event in the world that triggered the inner state (the distal cause of their behaviour, Teoh et al , 2017; Wu et al , 2019).…”

“…a facial expression or a positive/negative image—Kang et al , 2018; Teoh et al , 2017), what the target is thinking (Valanides et al , 2017), and the status of the target’s social context (whether they are accompanied or alone—Teoh et al , 2017)—see Wu et al (2019) for a summary. These inferences qualify as ‘retrodictive mind reading’ (Gallese & Goldman, 1998), which refers to the process of interpreting signals in another person’s behaviour to infer their inner state (the proximal cause of their behaviour) and perhaps the event in the world that triggered the inner state (the distal cause of their behaviour, Teoh et al , 2017; Wu et al , 2019). For example, on observing a person in a bar behaving in a gregarious and uninhibited manner we might infer that they feel cheerful and tipsy, perhaps, we further infer, because they imbibed some intoxicating beverages.…”

“…Valanides et al , 2017) and traits (such as whether the person is kind, trustworthy, shy, calm, etc.—e.g. Wu et al , 2016, 2019).…”