Why perception of mind matters?
In our interactions with strangers, we continually assess the mental acuity of those we encounter. When we perceive others as having a similar cognitive level, communication tends to be smoother and more effective. Individuals who recognize each other as intellectual equals often form cohesive groups or mind clubs. Within these groups, members engage in mutually beneficial activities and establish trust.
Conversely, we often view those outside our groups as possessing lower cognitive capabilities. This phenomenon extends to various contexts. For instance, we generally believe that plants have less cognitive complexity than animals, and domestic pets are seen as more sentient than wild animals. Social biases further complicate these perceptions: historically, white people have perceived Black individuals as having lesser minds, and Hindus may view Muslims or other minorities similarly. Meat-eaters might consider animals as having no minds, whereas vegetarians typically attribute higher cognitive abilities to animals. Children perceive more minds in dolls than adults do.
Cultural differences also play a role. In the UAE, cats are perceived as having higher cognitive status, while in northern India, cows wandering the streets are attributed more mind than in southern India. Despite these varied perceptions, we do not directly access others’ minds. Instead, we rely on interpreting facial cues within context.
What is the mind anyway?
In social psychology, research suggests that people perceive minds along two primary dimensions: experience and agency. Experience refers to the capacity to feel emotions such as pain, hunger, and moral sentiments. Agency denotes the ability to take responsibility for one’s actions. These dimensions influence our moral judgments significantly. For instance, healthy individuals are perceived as having a full-blown mind, while older adults are seen as having the dimension of experience but less agency. Figures like Superman and God are perceived as having high agency but less experience.
The perception of mind governs our moral sense and shapes our judgments of whether an action is moral or immoral. For instance, consider a scenario where an intentional agent harms a vulnerable individual. In such cases, we instinctively perceive the vulnerable individual as a victim and promptly condemn the actions of the aggressor. This immediate moral reaction is deeply rooted in our understanding of agency and experience — two fundamental dimensions of perceived mind.
Mind perception and moral judgements
However, our moral judgment becomes more nuanced when we believe the agent lacked malicious intent or control over their actions due to factors such as illness or external constraints. This flexibility in moral reasoning highlights the importance of context in our evaluations. If the harm-doer is perceived as having diminished agency, perhaps due to a medical condition that impairs their decision-making abilities, we are more likely to mitigate our condemnation and potentially extend sympathy towards them.
This understanding of the moral dyad — where intentional agents cause harm to vulnerable patients — plays a crucial role in shaping our moral perceptions and responses. It reflects a broader cognitive framework that we use to navigate complex social interactions and moral dilemmas. By attributing varying levels of experience and agency to different individuals, we determine the extent of their moral accountability.
In everyday life, this cognitive process influences how we assess actions and their perpetrators. For example, a healthy adult who commits a harmful act is judged more harshly than an elderly person suffering from dementia who does the same. Similarly, fictional characters like superheroes or deities are often perceived as possessing high agency but less experience of human vulnerabilities, affecting how we interpret their actions within moral narratives.
Understanding these dynamics is essential for fostering empathy and fairness in our social and legal systems. It allows us to consider the complexities behind actions and to tailor our judgments accordingly, promoting a more compassionate and just society.
Does perception of mind influence economic interactions?
Perceptions of mind significantly influence our daily social preferences and trust relationships. It is evident that economic interactions and social preferences are not solely driven by payoff consequences. Trusting a stranger, for instance, requires the trustor to identify trustworthy markers and assess whether the individual will reciprocate the initial trust. Similarly, offering help to someone necessitates that the helper empathizes with the needs of the person in distress, such as feeling the hunger of a beggar on the roadside.
In our recent study, we developed an ingenious method to manipulate the perceived mind of an interacting partner by manipulating images of a robot as our subjects. We altered the robot’s facial image from machine-like to fully human-like. Participants in the experiments judged these images on the dimensions of experience and agency. As anticipated, people perceived machine-like images as having lower cognitive abilities, with less capacity for experience and agency, whereas fully human-like images were attributed with full agency and experience.
We then matched individuals with these stimuli and had them participate in a one-shot dictator game. In this game, two players are involved: a proposer and a responder. The proposer decides how to divide a payoff between themselves and the responder, who has no say and must accept the offer. In our experiment, the stimuli (robot images) always occupied the responder’s position. The results showed that the magnitude of donations was proportional to the perceived dimension of experience.
We also set up a one-shot trust game to further explore how perceptions of agency influence economic behavior. In this game, the trustor can voluntarily invest an amount, say x dollars, from the endowment given to them. The receiver, or trustee, then receives 3x the amount (the experimenter enhances the initial sum before giving it to the trustee). The trustee can choose to keep the entire amount or transfer a portion back to the ‘trustor.’ In this scenario, the amount transferred by the trustor is used as a measure of trust.
In our experiments, human participants acted as trustors, while the images served as trustees. The findings were striking: for trust to be established, the trustor needed to perceive the interacting partner as possessing agency — the ability to control their actions. This suggests that perceptions of agency are crucial for fostering trust in economic interactions, even when the partner is merely an image of a robot. The results demonstrated that the amount of money transferred by the trustor was proportional to the perceived agency of the trustee. In other words, the more the trustor believed the robot image had the ability to take responsible actions, the more they were willing to invest and trust that the trustee would act in a trustworthy manner. This insight underscores the importance of perceived agency in trust dynamics, extending beyond human interactions to include artificial entities.
Our study suggests that specific perceptions of mind influence specific social behaviors. This understanding has profound implications. For instance, in the rapidly evolving field of human-robot interaction, designing robots that are perceived to have both experience and agency could enhance cooperation and trust between humans and machines. In broader social contexts, this research highlights how perceptions shape our interactions and decisions, from the boardroom to the street corner. By recognizing and potentially modifying these perceptions, we can foster more effective and harmonious relationships across a variety of settings.
Furthermore, these findings could inform policy and educational strategies aimed at reducing social biases and promoting inclusivity. By understanding the underlying cognitive assessments that drive trust and cooperation, organizations can develop targeted interventions to improve social cohesion and economic collaboration. In essence, our perceptions of mind are not just abstract judgments — they have tangible effects on how we interact, cooperate, and trust one another in everyday life.
