2022/04/01 by Emma J. Morgan, Daniel J. Carroll, Constance K. C. Chow +1
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Child and Animal Learning Development #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/cogs.13126
openalex publication_date 2022/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/08
Our behavior is frequently influenced by those around us. However, the majority of social cognition research is conducted using socially isolated paradigms, without the presence of real people (i.e., without a "social presence"). The current study aimed to test the influence of social presence upon a measure of mentalizing behavior in adults. Study 1 used a first-order theory of mind task; and study 2 used a second-order theory of mind task. Both studies included two conditions: live, where the task protagonists were physically present acting out the task, or recorded, where the same task protagonists demonstrated the task in a video recording. In both experiments, participants were affected by the social presence and demonstrated significantly different patterns of behavior in response to the presence of real people. This study, therefore, highlights the critical importance of understanding the effect of a social presence in mentalizing research, and suggests that the inclusion of a social presence needs to be given strong consideration across social cognition paradigms.