The Intervention of Affective and Cognitive Theory of Mind on Impacting Social Norm Violation Judgements

AbstractIndividual's judgment on the appropriateness of social norm includes perceiving other’s mental states (theory of mind), but it might differ with the intervention aspects in real social contexts. Therefore, in this study we mainly focus on evaluating whether affective and cognitive theory of mind would affect social norm violation judgments and investigate whether the timing of mentalization involves the judgments. As a result, preconceived intention intervention (both affective and cognitive theory of mind) significantly affected the judgments of the appropriateness. However, only cognitive theory of mind in attributing violation intentions after encountering the social norm statement was found to affect in the judgments of the appropriateness of norm violations. In summary, theory of mind plays an important role on the judgment of appropriateness for social norm violation, but the timing of intervention matters significantly.


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