ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the dominant approach to social cognition in contemporary cognitive science, which is centered around a capacity known as theory of mind or mindreading. “Social cognition” refers to the psychological capacities that humans and other animals use to reason about other agents and navigate complex social environments. Research in social neuroscience has identified a group of brain regions involved in theory of mind and social cognition, which is sometimes referred to as the “social brain network” or “mentalizing network.” The contemporary empirical literature on theory of mind can be traced back to a seminal study conducted by developmental psychologists Wimmer and Perner. One common criticism of the false-belief task is that it confounds theory of mind with executive functioning and linguistic abilities. In contrast, the simulation theory of mindreading posits that we predict and interpret the behavior of others by using our own decision-making mechanisms to model the minds.
