What makes a human? People have pondered this question for thousands of years, and come up with a variety of answers. One of the answers that appeals to me concerns the "theory of mind". This is a theory we all (or mostly all) use in our day to day contact with other people. We theorise that, although we have in fact no idea what's going on in their heads, it's the same sort of things that go on in our own heads. Thus, when someone hits their thumb with a hammer, we wince. When someone tells us their favorite car is bright red, we picture a bright red car, and assume we both agree on what "bright red" means (although in fact, we cannot know that what we both call "red" appears the same to both of us). This putting-yourself-in-another's-place is the basis of sympathy, empathy, humor ... our pleasure in stories, and our ability to tell them ... And
it appears to take place in the frontal lobes.
Of course, the theory of mind takes time to develop in people. If you're a parent, you can see it develop in your children. Oddly, although researchers have looked at the development of this perception in children, they don't seem to have wondered much about the differences between (normal) adults (although some people never seem very good at seeing another person's point of view!).
Recent research tosses out an interesting finding. In an experiment, which participants understood to be about communication, one person – the “director" – told another person to move certain objects around in a grid. This person had previously hidden an object in a bag, and knew the director didn’t know what the object was. Nevertheless, sometimes the director described the object to be moved in a way that more closely fitted the hidden object, rather than an object visible on the board. In this case, even though the person knew the director didn’t know what was in the bag and couldn’t be referring to it, the person in this role sometimes moved the bag itself in an effort to comply with the instructions. In a second experiment, this occurred even when the person believed the director falsely thought a completely different object was in the bag.
The researchers argued that this showed that even adults do not reliably use this ability for the very purpose for which it is designed, namely, to interpret the actions of others.
I'm not, myself, convinced that this particular experiment does prove that - it may be a failure of communication (should I act according to what the director thinks is true, or what I think is true?). Nevertheless, I do believe we vary considerably in the degree to which our "theory of mind" is integrated into the rest of our thinking.
Here's a thought - is this one reason for the "curmudgeon" stereotype of old age? for the inability to see another person's point of view that seems to develop in so many people as they get older? (The frontal lobes are an area of the brain most affected by aging.)
And are those who have poorly developed theories of mind deficient because of some dysfunction in the frontal lobes, or because the environment in their early years didn't stimulate growth in this particular area?
