We have inference systems that regulate social interaction; as we
have seen, they carry out complex computations. Is this person a reliable
partner or not? Is this news enjoyable gossip or bland information?
Consider, for instance, a couple who are interviewing prospective
baby-sitters for their children. Although they ask the candidate many
explicit questions, it is quite clear that they are paying attention to
(and drawing inferences from) all sorts of cues that have nothing to
do, at least at first sight, with the business at hand. If the baby-sitter
avoids making eye contact, if she starts ranting, if she blushes and
produces incoherent answers when asked whether she is married,
they will probably think that she is not suited for the job. If on the [151]
other hand she says she is a Mormon—what I describe here has been
actually observed and studied by sociologists in the United States—
they will form a much better impression. For the parents themselves,
all this is mixed into a general "impression" that is either favorable or
not, and it seems to be all based on a rather vague "feeling." But note
that the devices working in the mental basement are anything but
vague. Cues like gaze-avoidance are particularly important to a feel-
ing of reliability or trustworthiness between people. This system is
found the world over, but it is calibrated in special ways depending on
where we live. (In the United States, eye contact is required; in other
places it is aggressive if sustained; but in either case the system pays
attention to this cue and delivers the appropriate inferences, without
our necessarily being aware of it.) The reason why a Mormon baby-
sitter is a good proposition for many Americans depends on local his-
tory, but again it requires some complex computation. The main
explanation, the one people are aware of, is that a Mormon upbring-
ing would give people desirable moral dispositions. But there is
another important part of the story that is not available to conscious
inspection. It is that it would be very costlyfor an immoral or unreli-
able person to stay a Mormon. That is, to carry on behaving in a
convincing way toward other members of that particular community,
thought to be rather strict on morals, when you have none of the
corresponding dispositions would be very difficult and perhaps
impossible. (I am not saying this actually is the case; but this is peo-
ple's intuitive assumption.)
Social mind systems handle a variety of cues present in any situa-
tion of interaction. But we must note that these systems handle only
partof the information that is available to our minds. As people are
talking to you, your mind also keeps track of where the person is, of
WHYGODS AND SPIRITS?