nonpeople such as a god or a gadget or a pet.
Attending. People rarely notice things in their environment unless they are specifically attending to them. Other minds likewise tend to be relatively invisible unless attention is specifically drawn to them. For instance, take a moment to think about how happy you are compared to the average American... No really, please take a moment...If you just spent some time thinking about how happy you are and no time thinking about how happy the average American is, then you are no different from the majority of people in psychology experiments who do likewise*. People can consider others’ thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or emotions, but doing so requires mental effort that is in short and limited supply. Consider, for instance, a simple experiment in which you are playing a game with another person’. Both you and the other player in this game must first choose privately to cooperate or compete with each other. If you both choose to cooperate, you both earn $5. But if the other player chooses to cooperate and you choose to compete, then you win $10 and your partner gets nothing. If you, however, choose to cooperate and the other player chooses to compete, you win nothing and your partner wins $10. If you both choose to compete, you both win a measly $2. It seems obvious in this situation that you should consider both what you would like to do, but also consider what the other player is likely to be thinking. Experimental evidence suggests that people do indeed think about the former but spend little time thinking of the latter. In a basic version of this experiment, 60% of people chose to cooperate. However, when people were simply asked to think about their
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partner’s thoughts before making their choice, only 27% chose to cooperate. If people had already been thinking about others’ thoughts, as it seems like they would naturally be doing in this situation, then a simple instruction to consider others’ thoughts would have no effect on people’s own behavior. That is not the case. This simple experiment shows that people may not naturally consider other minds even when it appears that they should. Thinking about other minds requires attentional effort. It does not necessarily come automatically. Indeed, as Tanya Luhrmann describes in her chapter, people may have to work very hard to discern other minds, such as the mind of God, even when they are actively looking for them.
Seeking. If seeing other minds requires attention, then other minds are especially likely to become visible when people are motivated to think about them. There are many reasons why people might try to get into the mind of another agent, from a spouse to a pet to a god, but two are reasonably well- supported by existing research. First, people tend to think about other minds when they are trying to form a social connection with others. '° Making people feel lonely or isolated, for instance, increases the tendency to describe one’s pet as thoughtful, considerate, or sympathetic (all mindful traits). And those who are made to feel lonely are also likely to report believing in mindful supernatural agents, such as God. Second, people tend to think about other minds when they are trying to achieve some understanding and control over their environment or over another agent’s behavior.’ Concepts of mind, including attitudes, beliefs, goals, or desires, can provide compelling cause-
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