Cross-Cultural Theory of Mind: Self/Other Differentiation in Individualist versus Collectivist Cultures.

Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to compute and attribute mental states to both ourselves and other people. This research explored potential differences in engagement of ToM processes between two different cultures, Western (individualist) and Chinese (collectivist), using a sample of healthy adults. Individuals from different cultural backgrounds have previously been shown to differ on a variety of dimensions, from personality traits to visual perception and spatial reasoning. However, there is currently very limited research on cross-cultural ToM abilities. In this study, participants completed a computerized false-belief task, in which they attributed beliefs to either themselves or another person, in a matched design, allowing direct comparison between ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ oriented conditions. Results revealed that both native-English speakers and native-Chinese individuals responded significantly faster to self-oriented than other-oriented questions. Interestingly, results also showed that when a trial required a ‘perspective-shift’, participants from both cultures were slower to shift from Self-to-Other than from Other-to-Self. Results indicate that culture does not influence task performance, with similar results found for both Western and non-Western participants, suggesting core and potentially universal similarities in the ToM mechanism across these two cultures.