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Perceiving Sophisticated Minds Influences Perceptual Individuation.
Steven M Almaraz1, Kurt Hugenberg1, Steven G Young2
11 Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA.
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|November 3, 2017
Summary
Believing targets have humanlike minds increases motivation and ability to individuate them. This effect is mediated by perceiving targets as more similar to oneself.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Perception
Background:
- Understanding how people perceive and individuate others is crucial in social cognition.
- The attribution of mental states (mind perception) significantly influences social interactions and judgments.
- Previous research suggests a link between mind perception and social categorization, but the directionality and mechanisms are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the causal relationship between attributing humanlike versus animallike minds to targets and the ease of individuating those targets.
- To explore the role of perceived mental sophistication in driving the motivation and success of target individuation.
- To examine the mediating role of self-similarity in the link between target mental sophistication and individuation motivation.
Main Methods:
- Six studies were conducted using participants learning to discriminate between novel stimuli ('aliens' or Greebles).
- Manipulation of target descriptions to ascribe either humanlike (sophisticated) or animallike (simplistic) mental faculties.
- Measurement of participants' ability to individuate targets, motivation to individuate, and perceptions of target mind and self-similarity.
Main Results:
- The ability to individuate targets was initially related to beliefs about their sophisticated minds.
- Attributing humanlike mental faculties to targets increased perceivers' motivation to individuate them.
- Participants were more successful at individuating targets described as having sophisticated mental faculties.
- Increased self-similarity mediated the relationship between target mental sophistication and the motivation to individuate.
Conclusions:
- Ascribing sophisticated, humanlike mental faculties to targets enhances the motivation and ability to individuate them.
- The perceived mental sophistication of others plays a key role in the process of social individuation.
- Self-similarity acts as a crucial mediator, explaining why perceiving others as mentally sophisticated leads to greater individuation efforts.
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