Measuring Minds: How Scientists Study How People Understand Others

Abstract

In this article, we explore the science of understanding others’ minds. Specifically, we discuss how scientists try to study the processes of understanding the thoughts and feelings of other people (known as mentalizing) and of sharing other people’s emotions (known as empathizing). Understanding others is important because it helps people to build strong social connections with their friends, family, and people in their community. However, when people struggle with understanding others it might negatively impact their mental health or cause difficulties in their daily lives. Scientists are working hard to measure how people understand others—in the laboratory and in the real world. They use questionnaires and tests, observe people, track behaviors with mobile phones, and even image the brain. We will describe these methods and discuss how researching the understanding of others might help improve the lives of young people like you.