Exploring Actual and Presumed Links between Accurately Inferring Contents of Other People’s Minds and Prosocial Outcomes

Sara D. Hodges et al.:

"The most effective and efficient way for humans to know each other’s minds is, fortunately, not via inference. Humans have developed a highly advanced and direct communication system for getting perspectives—in the form of words and language. No inference is required if one simply asks the target what they are thinking and feeling. Consistent with this idea, Eyal et al. (2018) encourage the use of perspective getting through conversation over perspective taking through inference as a more effective route to understanding other people’s minds.

Humans can also quickly communicate simple but critical emotion-relevant messages nonverbally that may be processed with minimal or no inference required (messages along the lines of “I’m going to attack you”; “Something else is going to attack us both”; “The baby is in pain”; and “You’re pretty cute”), something we share with other species. If we really needed to know what was in people’s minds that they were not telling us with their words or emotion displays, maybe we would have evolved thought receptors. Instead, it may have been more adaptive to have the option of thinking about some things privately without them being accessible to others.

When we think about the instances when we most desire accuracy, it is often when targets are not telling us what is on their mind. Maybe this is because they are not entirely sure of these thoughts and feelings themselves. Or maybe they are embarrassed about what they are thinking or feeling, they do not want to upset us or think their thoughts and feelings will cause an argument, or they are lying to us or want to use privileged information to their own advantage."