The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology
We propose that human social cognition is structured around a basic understanding of ourselves and others as intuitive utility maximizers: from a young age, humans implicitly assume that agents choose goals and actions to maximize the rewards they expect to obtain relative to the costs they expect t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Elsevier
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113204 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-1647 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1925-2035 |
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| author | Gweon, Hyowon Jara-Ettinger, Julian Schulz, Laura E Tenenbaum, Joshua B |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Gweon, Hyowon Jara-Ettinger, Julian Schulz, Laura E Tenenbaum, Joshua B |
| author_sort | Gweon, Hyowon |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We propose that human social cognition is structured around a basic understanding of ourselves and others as intuitive utility maximizers: from a young age, humans implicitly assume that agents choose goals and actions to maximize the rewards they expect to obtain relative to the costs they expect to incur. This ‘naïve utility calculus’ allows both children and adults observe the behavior of others and infer their beliefs and desires, their longer-term knowledge and preferences, and even their character: who is knowledgeable or competent, who is praiseworthy or blameworthy, who is friendly, indifferent, or an enemy. We review studies providing support for the naïve utility calculus, and we show how it captures much of the rich social reasoning humans engage in from infancy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:11:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/113204 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:11:53Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1132042022-09-23T11:34:58Z The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology Gweon, Hyowon Jara-Ettinger, Julian Schulz, Laura E Tenenbaum, Joshua B Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Schulz, Laura, E. Jara-Ettinger, Julian Schulz, Laura E Tenenbaum, Joshua B We propose that human social cognition is structured around a basic understanding of ourselves and others as intuitive utility maximizers: from a young age, humans implicitly assume that agents choose goals and actions to maximize the rewards they expect to obtain relative to the costs they expect to incur. This ‘naïve utility calculus’ allows both children and adults observe the behavior of others and infer their beliefs and desires, their longer-term knowledge and preferences, and even their character: who is knowledgeable or competent, who is praiseworthy or blameworthy, who is friendly, indifferent, or an enemy. We review studies providing support for the naïve utility calculus, and we show how it captures much of the rich social reasoning humans engage in from infancy. 2018-01-16T18:13:04Z 2018-01-16T18:13:04Z 2016-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1364-6613 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113204 Jara-Ettinger, Julian et al. “The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20, 8 (August 2016): 589–604 © 2016 Elsevier Ltd https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-1647 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1925-2035 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.05.011 Trends in Cognitive Sciences Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier Prof. Schulz |
| spellingShingle | Gweon, Hyowon Jara-Ettinger, Julian Schulz, Laura E Tenenbaum, Joshua B The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology |
| title | The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology |
| title_full | The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology |
| title_fullStr | The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology |
| title_short | The Naïve Utility Calculus: Computational Principles Underlying Commonsense Psychology |
| title_sort | naive utility calculus computational principles underlying commonsense psychology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113204 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-1647 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1925-2035 |
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