How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter?

Valanides, Constantinos; Sheppard, Elizabeth; Mitchell, Peter

Abstract

This research investigated how accurately people infer what others are thinking after observing a brief sample of their behaviour and whether culture/similarity is a relevant factor. Target participants (14 British and 14 Mediterraneans) were cued to think about either positive or negative events they had experienced. Subsequently, perceiver participants (16 British and 16 Mediterraneans) watched videos of the targets thinking about these things. Perceivers (both groups) were significantly accurate in judging when targets had been cued to think of something positive versus something negative, indicating notable inferential ability. Additionally, Mediterranean perceivers were better than British perceivers in making such inferences, irrespective of nationality of the targets, something that was statistically accounted for by corresponding group differences in levels of independently measured collectivism. The results point to the need for further research to investigate the possibility that being reared in a collectivist culture fosters ability in interpreting others’ behaviour.

Citation

Valanides, C., Sheppard, E., & Mitchell, P. (in press). How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter?. PLoS ONE, 12(11), Article e0187586. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187586

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 23, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 7, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 1, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 7, 2017
• Journal: PLoS ONE
• Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 11
• Article Number: e0187586
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187586
• Keywords: Interpersonal inferences, retrodiction, culture, collectivism, individualism
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/893580
• Publisher URL: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187586