Social Understanding beyond the Familiar: Disparity in Visual Abilities Does Not Impede Empathy and Theory of Mind
Feeling with our conspecifics and understanding their sentiments and intentions is a crucial part of our lives. What is the basis for these forms of social understanding? If individuals ground their understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings in their own perceptual and factual experiences, it co...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Intelligence |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/12/1/2 |
| _version_ | 1797343353751207936 |
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| author | Eva Landmann Alina Krahmer Anne Böckler |
| author_facet | Eva Landmann Alina Krahmer Anne Böckler |
| author_sort | Eva Landmann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Feeling with our conspecifics and understanding their sentiments and intentions is a crucial part of our lives. What is the basis for these forms of social understanding? If individuals ground their understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings in their own perceptual and factual experiences, it could present a challenge to empathize and mentalize with those whose reality of life is significantly different. This preregistered study compared two groups of participants who differed in a central perceptual feature, their visual abilities (visually impaired vs. unimpaired; total N = 56), concerning their social understanding of others who were themselves either visually impaired or unimpaired. Employing an adjusted version of the EmpaToM task, participants heard short, autobiographic narrations by visually impaired or unimpaired individuals, and we assessed their empathic responding and mentalizing performance. Our findings did not reveal heightened empathy and mentalizing proclivities when the narrator’s visual abilities aligned with those of the participant. However, in some circumstances, cognitive understanding of others’ narrations benefitted from familiarity with the situation. Overall, our findings suggest that social understanding does not mainly rely on perceptual familiarity with concrete situations but is likely grounded in sharing emotions and experiences on a more fundamental level. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T10:46:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8b3235e52af844148908159b6cebe5af |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-3200 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T10:46:24Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Intelligence |
| spelling | doaj.art-8b3235e52af844148908159b6cebe5af2024-01-26T17:12:07ZengMDPI AGJournal of Intelligence2079-32002023-12-01121210.3390/jintelligence12010002Social Understanding beyond the Familiar: Disparity in Visual Abilities Does Not Impede Empathy and Theory of MindEva Landmann0Alina Krahmer1Anne Böckler2Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, 97070 Würzburg, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Würzburg, 97070 Würzburg, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Würzburg, 97070 Würzburg, GermanyFeeling with our conspecifics and understanding their sentiments and intentions is a crucial part of our lives. What is the basis for these forms of social understanding? If individuals ground their understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings in their own perceptual and factual experiences, it could present a challenge to empathize and mentalize with those whose reality of life is significantly different. This preregistered study compared two groups of participants who differed in a central perceptual feature, their visual abilities (visually impaired vs. unimpaired; total N = 56), concerning their social understanding of others who were themselves either visually impaired or unimpaired. Employing an adjusted version of the EmpaToM task, participants heard short, autobiographic narrations by visually impaired or unimpaired individuals, and we assessed their empathic responding and mentalizing performance. Our findings did not reveal heightened empathy and mentalizing proclivities when the narrator’s visual abilities aligned with those of the participant. However, in some circumstances, cognitive understanding of others’ narrations benefitted from familiarity with the situation. Overall, our findings suggest that social understanding does not mainly rely on perceptual familiarity with concrete situations but is likely grounded in sharing emotions and experiences on a more fundamental level.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/12/1/2empathytheory of mindsocial understandingcommunicationvisual impairmentsharing perceptual experience |
| spellingShingle | Eva Landmann Alina Krahmer Anne Böckler Social Understanding beyond the Familiar: Disparity in Visual Abilities Does Not Impede Empathy and Theory of Mind Journal of Intelligence empathy theory of mind social understanding communication visual impairment sharing perceptual experience |
| title | Social Understanding beyond the Familiar: Disparity in Visual Abilities Does Not Impede Empathy and Theory of Mind |
| title_full | Social Understanding beyond the Familiar: Disparity in Visual Abilities Does Not Impede Empathy and Theory of Mind |
| title_fullStr | Social Understanding beyond the Familiar: Disparity in Visual Abilities Does Not Impede Empathy and Theory of Mind |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social Understanding beyond the Familiar: Disparity in Visual Abilities Does Not Impede Empathy and Theory of Mind |
| title_short | Social Understanding beyond the Familiar: Disparity in Visual Abilities Does Not Impede Empathy and Theory of Mind |
| title_sort | social understanding beyond the familiar disparity in visual abilities does not impede empathy and theory of mind |
| topic | empathy theory of mind social understanding communication visual impairment sharing perceptual experience |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/12/1/2 |
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