Castelfranchi Cristiano
GOAL lab ISTC-CNR Roma, Rome, Italy.
Cogn Process. 2012 Oct;13 Suppl 2:415-25. doi: 10.1007/s10339-011-0423-y. Epub 2011 Oct 12.
In this paper, I explain how we just "ascribe" "attribute" to social actors--in a fast and automatic way and without complex reasoning--mental representations on the basis of "scripts," "roles," role-signs, tool use and functions, categories and prejudices, and several heuristics; or by default. How scripts and roles must be filled in with the actors' mental attitudes. How social interaction systematically requires assumptions about the other's mind. How sometimes in the subject those mental attitudes are not only unconscious but actually implicit; just potential or tacit (non-activated), or just the non-intended or non-understood function of his behavior/role. However, what really matters is that we assume that those beliefs and goals are there, and we act "as if" it were so. I finally claim that this mechanism of mind ascription while reading the behavior or the signs of the roles and scripts is the basis of a fundamental form of communication: Behavioral Implicit Communication.
