Mindreading: Judgments About Intentionality and Motives in Dispositional Inference

2009/01/01 by Glenn Reeder · 1 citation
Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Attribution #Causal inference #Cognition #Cognitive psychology #Cultural Differences and Values #Epistemology #Inference #Intentionality #Morality #Perception #Psychology #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social cognition #Social perception #Social psychology

paper · doi:10.1080/10478400802615744

openalex publication_date 2009/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01

Abstract

Judgments about the intentionality of other people's behavior are central to social perception. Perceivers typically explain a target person's intentional behavior in terms of the target's motives. In turn, inferences about motive often inform trait inferences about the target. In comparison to past theories, this multiple inference model portrays perceivers as interested in the specific beliefs and motives of others, rather than viewing perceivers as focusing on abstract causal reasoning. The model is applied to the literatures on attitude, morality, and ability attribution. In contrast to intentional behavior, perceivers explain a target person's involuntary, unintentional behavior by using a simpler process of global causal attribution.

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• Mind Perception Is the Essence of Morality