Department of Psychology, New York University.
Department of Psychology, Yale University.
Cogn Sci. 2021 Sep;45(9):e13034. doi: 10.1111/cogs.13034.
People commonly think of the mind and the brain as distinct entities that interact, a view known as dualism. At the same time, the public widely acknowledges that science attributes all mental phenomena to the workings of a material brain, a view at odds with dualism. How do people reconcile these conflicting perspectives? We propose that people distort claims about the brain from the wider culture to fit their dualist belief that minds and brains are distinct, interacting entities: Exposure to cultural discourse about the brain as the physical basis for the mind prompts people to posit that mind-brain interactions are asymmetric, such that the brain is able to affect the mind more than vice versa. We term this hybrid intuitive theory neurodualism. Five studies involving both thought experiments and naturalistic scenarios provided evidence of neurodualism among laypeople and, to some extent, even practicing psychotherapists. For example, lay participants reported that "a change in a person's brain" is accompanied by "a change in the person's mind" more often than vice versa. Similarly, when asked to imagine that "future scientists were able to alter exactly 25% of a person's brain," participants reported larger corresponding changes in the person's mind than in the opposite direction. Participants also showed a similarly asymmetric pattern favoring the brain over the mind in naturalistic scenarios. By uncovering people's intuitive theories of the mind-brain relation, the results provide insights into societal phenomena such as the allure of neuroscience and common misperceptions of mental health treatments.
人们通常认为思维和大脑是相互作用的不同实体，这种观点被称为二元论。与此同时，公众普遍承认，科学将所有心理现象都归因于物质大脑的运作，这与二元论观点相悖。人们如何调和这些相互冲突的观点呢？我们提出，人们会扭曲更广泛文化中关于大脑的说法，以符合他们的二元论信念，即思维和大脑是不同的、相互作用的实体：接触到关于大脑作为心灵物理基础的文化论述会促使人们假设思维-大脑相互作用是不对称的，即大脑能够更多地影响思维，而不是相反。我们将这种混合直觉理论称为神经二元论。五项研究涉及思想实验和自然场景，为非专业人士，甚至为某些执业心理治疗师提供了神经二元论的证据。例如，非专业参与者报告说，“一个人大脑的变化”伴随着“这个人思维的变化”比反之更为频繁。同样，当被要求想象“未来的科学家能够改变一个人大脑的 25%”时，参与者报告说这个人的思维会发生更大的变化，而不是相反。参与者在自然场景中也表现出类似的不对称模式，即大脑比思维更占优势。通过揭示人们对思维-大脑关系的直觉理论，这些结果为理解社会现象提供了线索，例如神经科学的吸引力和对心理健康治疗的常见误解。
