Inside job
32 | NewScientist | 8 June 2013keith negleyhumans have an impressive ability to get into
other people’s heads, discovers Kirsten Weir.
So why are some of us better at it than others?
P
ICTURE two friends, Sally and Anne,
having a drink in a bar. While Sally is
in the bathroom, Anne decides to buy
another round, but she notices that Sally has
left her phone on the table. So no one can steal
it, Anne puts the phone into her friend’s bag
before heading to the bar. When Sally returns,
where will she expect to see her phone?
If you said she would look at the table where
she left it, congratulations! You have a theory
of mind – the ability to understand that
another person may have knowledge, ideas
and beliefs that differ from your own, or
from reality.
If that sounds like nothing out of the
ordinary, perhaps it’s because we usually take
it for granted. Yet it involves doing something
no other animal can do to the same extent:
temporarily setting aside our own ideas and
beliefs about the world – that the phone is in
the bag, in this case – in order to take on an
alternative world view.
This process, also known as “mentalising”,
not only lets us see that someone else can
believe something that isn’t true, but also letsCOVeR StORy
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