Theory of Mind (false belief)
In the early 1980s, two psychologists named Heinz Wimmer and Josef Perner conducted a series of experimental tests to see if children between the ages of three and five were able to attribute a false belief to someone else. In other words, they were trying to find out if children understand that others could have beliefs about the world that are wrong. This would determine if children had Theory of Mind, or the ability to comprehend that people have mental states different from their own.
Wimmer and Perner’s experiments usually involved children looking at skits, but in 1988 Alan Leslie and Uta Frith repeated the experiments with human actors and found similar results.
In one experiment, two children were brought into a room containing two boxes: box A and box B. As they watched, the experimenter put a toy into box A. Next, one child was taken out of the room. While the remaining child watched, the experimenter took the toy out of box A and placed it into box B. Finally, that child was asked where the other child will look for the toy. More often than not, the child would fail by pointing to box B. To pass the test, the child would have had to recognize that the other child has his/her own beliefs that may not correspond with reality.
I’m not sure if they ever took the departed child back into the room and asked him/her where to find the toy. That seems like a dirty trick, which I suppose the world is full of. Maybe the child’s belief system would be shattered upon seeing that what they knew to be true was actually false. That could be the exact moment that the child begins to view the world as deceptive. Hope and love become ideas only possible in Hollywood movies, and tears become so plentiful that it seems absurd to the child that such a river could run down his/her innocent cheeks.
Or, maybe the child would not give up, and he/she would simply look to the next box. If there were a million boxes, maybe the child would keep searching.
I think I’m always looking to the next box. And one day, I’ll find what I’m looking for.
Tags: false belief, theory of mind