“All social interactions require some loss of freedom.”
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The brains of individuals on the autism spectrum can infer what others think, contrary to a commonly held view that claims they find it hard to imagine another’s thoughts, a brand new theory by UNSW Sydney psychologists suggests.
However, although people with autism are also ready to grasp what another person is thinking, they will have more difficulty afterward in detecting differences between their own and other people’s thoughts.
The researchers reframe the available evidence about the power to grasp another’s thoughts and emotions – known in psychology as ‘Theory of Mind’. While the ‘Theory of Mind’ idea suggested that one must primarily infer others’ thoughts so as to grasp them, the new theory highlights the importance of comparing one’s own to others’ thinking instead.
Through a scientific review and an important analysis of quite 50 neurological imaging studies, the researchers found that one among the most areas of the brain that we use to grasp others is active when detecting differences between what one thinks, and what others think.
After re-assessing findings from 35 years of Theory of Mind research in autism, the researchers argue that the brain in people on the spectrum could also be able to grasp what others think, on the other hand, may have a harder time processing the degree to which others think differently from themselves.
It is this process that individuals on the autism spectrum may have difficulty with – recognizing the differences in mental states between themselves and also the person they're interacting with and adapting to the present.
“If individuals on the spectrum notice another person trying to steer away from the conversation towards an ownership interest, for example, they will not entirely process a mismatch in thinking as a cue to prevent talking,”
“This may lead them to overshare their own thoughts, or the other may happen, too. Understanding another person’s different thoughts may very well keep a private on the spectrum from verbalizing their own thoughts, whether or not this may be socially expected within the given context. Differences in engaging in back-and-forth conversation are thought to lie at the center of the autism spectrum.”
A new perspective on social interaction
The new research not only has implications for what we understand about autism, but it's also relevant to the various other ways in which humans interact.
“For example, someone is also telling you a couple of situation with their boss, while you were thinking of adjusting the subject to your cat. If one isn’t on the identical page with another person, the brain may have to process this, so determine whether to rephrase one’s own thoughts or specialize in the others. It can crucially determine the flow of any social interaction.”
The new theory also changes our understanding of complex social interactions like lie detection, moral judgments, and therefore the understanding of sarcasm and humor.
Recognizing a person’s sarcasm, for instance, once they describe the weather as ‘beautiful’ while it's raining, may possibly rely upon detecting a mismatch between this person’s statement and one’s own understanding of the planet.
“Broader fields like legal topics, animal cognition, economics, and cultural studies have focused partially on ‘Theory of Mind’ as core to understanding others. If our theory holds, a number of those fields might have to accommodate a central role of relational mentalizing within the long term, too.”
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