Empathy, sex and fluid intelligence as predictors of theory of mind
Personality and Individual DifferencesPublished 21 December 2012Open access
Agustín Ibáñez, David Huepe, René Gempp, Virna Vaneza Gutiérrez, Álvaro Rivera‐Rei, María Isabel Toledo
Citations182
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.42
SNIP1.34
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
Abstract
Individual differences in theory of mind (ToM) are affected by a variety of factors. We investigated the relationship between empathy, sex and fluid intelligence (FI) as predictors of ToM in a random probabilistic sample of secondary students. First, we explored whether sex, as well as high, average or low levels of empathy and FI affect ToM performance. Furthermore, we assessed the contribution of empathy, sex and FI in predicting ToM by using a path analysis. This method allows testing of causal models of directed dependencies among a set of variables. The causal dependencies of empathy, sex and fluid intelligence were confirmed and identified. In addition, the model confirmed the direct effect of empathy, sex and fluid intelligence on ToM; and the indirect effect of sex mediated by empathy. Thus, individual differences in ToM levels are partially attributable to sex, empathy and fluid intelligence variability, raising important considerations for clinical research as well as ToM's theoretical models of domain specificity. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords
PsychologyMedicineNeuroscience
Contemporary Sociology A Journal of ReviewsStructural Equations with Latent Variables.
17,606 Citations1991Clifford C. Clogg, Kenneth A. Bollen
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyMeasuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach.
9,585 Citations1983Mark H. Davis
Psychological MethodsPrinciples and practice in reporting structural equation analyses.
4,496 Citations2002Roderick P. McDonald, Moon‐Ho Ringo Ho
Principles for reporting analyses using structural equation modeling are reviewed, and it is recommended that every report give a detailed justification of the model used, along with plausible alternatives and an account of identifiability.
Journal of Child Psychology and PsychiatryThe “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test Revised Version: A Study with Normal Adults, and Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High‐functioning Autism
4,446 Citations2001Simon Baron‐Cohen, Sally Wheelwright +3 more
The Revised Eyes Test has improved power to detect subtle individual differences in social sensitivity and was inversely correlated with the Autism Spectrum Quotient (the AQ), a measure of autistic traits in adults of normal intelligence.
PubMedThe "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test revised version: a study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.
4,348 Citations2001Simon Baron‐Cohen, Sally Wheelwright +3 more
Journal of Autism and Developmental DisordersThe Empathy Quotient: An Investigation of Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism, and Normal Sex Differences
4,056 Citations2004Simon Baron‐Cohen, Sally Wheelwright
The EQ reveals both a sex difference in empathy in the general population and an empathy deficit in Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism adults, who are reported clinically to have difficulties in empathy.
Nature reviews. NeuroscienceMeeting of minds: the medial frontal cortex and social cognition
3,728 Citations2006David M. Amodio, Chris Frith
This work reviews the emerging literature that relates social cognition to the medial frontal cortex and proposes a theoretical model of medial frontal cortical function relevant to different aspects of social cognitive processing.
Personality and Individual DifferencesStructural equation modelling: Adjudging model fit
2,518 Citations2006Paul Barrett
Cognitive PsychologyThe Raven's Progressive Matrices: Change and Stability over Culture and Time
1,556 Citations2000John Raven
Stability and variation in the norms for the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test for different cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups on a worldwide and within-country basis are summarized and a possible explanation for the variation in norms over time is offered.
NatureThe capacity for joint visual attention in the infant
1,140 Citations1975Mike Scaife, Jerome S. Bruner
The ability of the infant to respond successfully to such signals allows the mother to isolate and highlight a much wider range of environmental features than if the infant ignores her attention-directing efforts.
Cause and correlation in biology a user's guide to path analysis, structural equations, and causal inference
1,101 Citations2000Bill Shipley
This work has shown clear trends in the development of nested models and multilevel models, and these trends are likely to continue to increase in the coming years.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral ReviewsThe neuronal basis and ontogeny of empathy and mind reading: Review of literature and implications for future research
1,068 Citations2006Tania Singer
It is suggested that the abilities to understand other people's thoughts and to share their affects display different ontogenetic trajectories reflecting the different developmental paths of their underlying neural structures.
The Reviewer's Guide to Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences
925 Citations2010Gregory R. Hancock, Ralph O. Mueller +2 more
Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesAutism: The Empathizing–Systemizing (E‐S) Theory
811 Citations2009Simon Baron‐Cohen
A new theory, the empathizing–systemizing (E‐S) theory, is summarized, which argues two factors are needed to explain the social and nonsocial features of the condition.
Child DevelopmentTheory of Mind, Emotion Understanding, Language, and Family Background: Individual Differences and Interrelations
809 Citations1999Alexandra L. Cutting, Judy Dunn
The results suggest that family background has a significant impact on the development of theory of mind and that understanding of false-belief and understanding of emotion may be distinct aspects of social cognition in young children.
Psychological ScienceThe Development of Executive Functioning and Theory of Mind
726 Citations2005Mark A. Sabbagh, Fen Xu +3 more
The relation between executive functioning and theory of mind is robust across two disparate cultures, shedding light on why executive functioning is important for theory-of-mind development.
The Reviewer’s Guide to Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences
715 Citations2018Gregory R. Hancock, Ralph O. Mueller +1 more
Developmental PsychologyExecutive Function and Theory of Mind: Stability and Prediction From Ages 2 to 3.
681 Citations2004Stephanie M. Carlson, Dorothy J. Mandell +1 more
Longitudinal stability and EF-ToM relations were examined in 81 children at 24 and 39 months and individual differences in EF were relatively stable.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral ReviewsTheory of mind—evolution, ontogeny, brain mechanisms and psychopathology
529 Citations2005Martin Brüne, Ute Brüne-Cohrs
The evolutionary psychology of theory of mind including its ontogeny and representation in the central nervous system, and studies of theory-of- mind in psychopathological conditions are reviewed.
Best Practices in Structural Equation Modeling
385 Citations2008Ralph O. Mueller, Gregory R. Hancock
Personality and Individual DifferencesTesting! testing! one, two, three – Testing the theory in structural equation models!
355 Citations2006Leslie A. Hayduk, Greta G. Cummings +3 more
Psychological BulletinChildren’s understanding of second-order mental states.
342 Citations2009Scott A. Miller
Research directed to second-order false belief and other forms of higher order, recursive mentalistic reasoning are reviewed, revealing positive relations with a number of other aspects of children's development.
BrainExecutive function and fluid intelligence after frontal lobe lesions
314 Citations2009María Roca, Alice Parr +6 more
Understanding of frontal lobe deficits may be clarified by separating reduced fluid intelligence, important in most or all tasks, from other more specific impairments and their associated regions of damage.
NeurologyContextual social cognition and the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia
312 Citations2012Agustín Ibáñez, Facundo Manes
This work proposes the social context network model (SCNM), a fronto-insular-temporal network responsible for processing social contextual effects and highlights the need for a situated cognition approach in social cognition research as opposed to an abstract, universal, and decontextualized approach.
BrainA neuropsychological battery to detect specific executive and social cognitive impairments in early frontotemporal dementia
295 Citations2009Teresa Torralva, María Roca +3 more
The results suggest that the Executive and Social Cognition Battery used in this study is more sensitive in detecting executive and social cognitive impairment deficits in early behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia than the classical cognitive measures.
Developmental PsychologyIndividual differences in executive function and central coherence predict developmental changes in theory of mind in autism.
288 Citations2010Elizabeth Pellicano
Rather than showing problems in ToM, EF and CC as co-occurring and independent atypicalities in autism, these findings suggest that early domain-general skills play a critical role in shaping the developmental trajectory of children's ToM.
Development and PsychopathologyThe relationship of theory of mind and executive functions to symptom type and severity in children with autism
277 Citations2004Robert M. Joseph, Helen Tager‐Flusberg
A proposed distinction between higher level, cognitive–linguistic aspects of theory of mind and related executive control skills, and more fundamental social–perceptual processes involved in the apprehension of mental state information conveyed through eyes, faces, and voices, which may be more closely linked to autistic deficits in social reciprocity are discussed.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental PsychologyFine Cuts of Empathy and the Amygdala: Dissociable Deficits in Psychopathy and Autism
264 Citations2007James Blair
It is concluded that while both conditions can be considered disorders of social cognition, fine cuts can be made dissociating the impairments associated with each.
Pediatric ResearchTheory of Mind and Neurodevelopmental Disorders of Childhood
242 Citations2011Barış Korkmaz
To a large extent, the human infant is socialized through the acquisition of a specific cognitive mechanism known as theory of mind (ToM), a term which is currently used to explain a related set of intellectual abilities that enable us to understand that others have beliefs, desires, plans, hopes, information, and intentions that may differ from the authors' own.
NeuropsychologiaThe relationship between affective decision-making and theory of mind in the frontal variant of fronto-temporal dementia
224 Citations2006Teresa Torralva, Christopher Kipps +6 more
While performance measures from the two ToM tasks were significantly correlated, they were not associated with IGT performance, which suggests that whilst similar prefrontal circuitry is implicated in ToM and DM tasks, these cognitive domains may be independent.
Social DevelopmentIs there a Gender Difference in False Belief Development?
223 Citations2002Tony Charman, Ted Ruffman +1 more
Journal of Autism and Developmental DisordersExecutive Function Mechanisms of Theory of Mind
213 Citations2010Fayeza S. Ahmed, L. Stephen Miller
Results suggest that the ToM tests each utilized differing cognitive mechanisms, and no EF domains accounted for significant variance in RMET scores; only estimated IQ scores were significant predictors of RMET performance.
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyIndividual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces—One element of social cognition.
196 Citations2010Oliver Wilhelm, Grit Herzmann +4 more
Trends in Cognitive SciencesDomain-specificity and theory of mind: evaluating neuropsychological evidence
157 Citations2005Ian A. Apperly, Dana Samson +1 more
A systematic approach is presented to this issue for the paradigmatic case of belief reasoning, and it is argued that neuropsychological data provide no clear evidence for domain-specificity or modularity for Theory of Mind in adults.
Social NeuroscienceWhat's domain-specific about theory of mind?
134 Citations2006Valerie E. Stone, Philip Gerrans
It is argued that 20 years of data collection in lesion patients and children with autism supports a more parsimonious view closer to that of the 1985 paper, Baron-Cohen and colleagues, which argued that autistic performance on false belief tests was explained by a deficit in metarepresentation.
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyMan, I feel like a woman: When and how gender-role motivation helps mind-reading.
119 Citations2008Geoff Thomas, Gregory R. Maio
Both experiments demonstrated that motivation improved accuracy when male and female perceivers valued the empathy-relevant aspects of the traditional female gender role, however, as predicted, high levels of motivation facilitated the accurate reading of easy targets but not of difficult targets.
Developmental SciencePromoting the Transition from Implicit to Explicit Understanding: A Training Study of False Belief
113 Citations2000Wendy A. Clements, Charlotte L. Rustin +1 more
PLoS ONEFluid Intelligence and Psychosocial Outcome: From Logical Problem Solving to Social Adaptation
85 Citations2011David Huepe, María Roca +7 more
The results show evidence of a strong association between psychosocial adaptation and fluid intelligence, suggesting that the latter is not only central to executive functioning but also forms part of a more general capacity for adaptation to social contexts.
British Journal of Developmental PsychologySelf‐knowledge and knowing other minds: The implicit/explicit distinction as a tool in understanding theory of mind
27 Citations2011Tillmann Vierkant
This paper argues that the correct answer to this question will have to take into account the crucial role of language-based deliberation but warns against the standard assumption that explicitness is necessary for ascribing awareness.