Thompson R Bruce, Thornton Bill
a University of Southern Maine.
J Soc Psychol. 2014 Nov-Dec;154(6):475-9. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2014.933763.
This study explored mental state reasoning within the context of group effort and possible differences in development between boys and girls. Preschool children (59 girls, 47 boys) were assessed for theory of mind (ToM) ability using classic false belief tests. Children participated in group effort conditions that alternated from one condition, where individual effort was transparent and obvious, to one where individual effort remained anonymous. The aim was to investigate if emergent mental state reasoning, after controlling for age, was associated with the well-known phenomenon of reduced effort in group tasks ("social loafing"). Girls had slightly higher ToM scores and social loafing than boys. Hierarchical regression, controlling for age, indicated that understanding of others' false beliefs uniquely predicted social loafing and interacted weakly with gender status.
本研究探讨了在团队合作背景下的心理状态推理，以及男孩和女孩在发展过程中可能存在的差异。使用经典错误信念测试对学龄前儿童（59名女孩，47名男孩）的心理理论（ToM）能力进行了评估。儿童参与了团队合作任务，这些任务条件在两种情况之间交替，一种情况是个人努力是透明且明显的，另一种情况是个人努力保持匿名。目的是研究在控制年龄后，新兴的心理状态推理是否与团队任务中努力程度降低这一众所周知的现象（“社会惰化”）相关。女孩的ToM得分和社会惰化程度略高于男孩。控制年龄的分层回归表明，对他人错误信念的理解独特地预测了社会惰化，并且与性别状况的交互作用较弱。
