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Rethinking people's conceptions of mental life
Kara Weisman1, Carol S Dweck2, Ellen M Markman1
1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 kweisman@stanford.edu markman@stanford.edu.
Summary
People perceive mental life through three core components: body, heart, and mind. This new body-heart-mind framework offers a richer understanding than the previous experience-agency model for social phenomena.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Philosophy of Mind
Background:
- Prior research suggested mind perception is organized by experience and agency.
- The experience-agency framework may explain perceptions of different beings but not mental life itself.
- This study challenges the sufficiency of the experience-agency framework.
Purpose of the Study:
- To directly assess people's conceptions of mental life.
- To identify the fundamental components of human mental experience.
- To propose an alternative framework to experience-agency.
Main Methods:
- Conducted four large-scale studies.
- Employed a bottom-up approach inspired by prior work.
- Analyzed participants' conceptions of mental life.
Main Results:
- Consistently identified three fundamental components of mental life.
- These components are suites of capacities related to the body, heart, and mind.
- Each component includes aspects of both experience and agency.
Conclusions:
- The body-heart-mind framework offers a more nuanced understanding of mental life.
- This framework differs significantly from the experience-agency model.
- The body-heart-mind framework has implications for understanding dehumanization and moral reasoning.
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