Rizzo Michael T, Killen Melanie
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2018 May;169:30-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.12.008. Epub 2018 Jan 8.
The current study investigated whether children's relative social status within a context influences their ability to identify others' mental states. Across two experiments, 3- to 7-year-olds (N = 103) were randomly assigned to hold either an advantaged or disadvantaged social status and were assessed on their ability to accurately identify others' mental states (via false-belief and belief-emotion "theory of mind" assessments). When participants' status was manipulated by a structural factor (gender; Experiment 1), participants with disadvantaged status were more likely than participants with advantaged status to pass the false-belief and belief-emotion assessments. When status was manipulated by an individual factor (performance; Experiment 2), participants with disadvantaged status were more likely to pass the false-belief assessment but not the belief-emotion assessment. Results provide the first empirical evidence that an individual's contextualized perspective (i.e., his or her social status situated within a given context) influences the individual's ability to identify others' mental states.
当前的研究调查了儿童在某一情境中的相对社会地位是否会影响他们识别他人心理状态的能力。在两项实验中，3至7岁的儿童（N = 103）被随机分配到具有优势或劣势的社会地位，并通过错误信念和信念-情感“心理理论”评估来测试他们准确识别他人心理状态的能力。当参与者的地位由一个结构性因素（性别；实验1）操控时，处于劣势地位的参与者比处于优势地位的参与者更有可能通过错误信念和信念-情感评估。当地位由一个个体因素（表现；实验2）操控时，处于劣势地位的参与者更有可能通过错误信念评估，但无法通过信念-情感评估。研究结果首次提供了实证证据，证明个体的情境化视角（即其在特定情境中的社会地位）会影响个体识别他人心理状态的能力。
