Theory of mind understanding, but whose mind? Affiliation with the target is related to children’s false belief performance

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether children’s theory of mind performance would differ according to the group membership of the mental inference target. Eighty 3- to 5-year-old children were administered standard theory of mind measures (diverse desires, false belief, and real-apparent emotion tasks) with either an ingroup or an outgroup target. The false belief performance of older 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds and younger 4-year-olds, was worse (a) with an ingroup than an outgroup target if they demonstrated high ingroup affiliation and (b) when they affiliated with the target, regardless of target group membership. Children’s performance in the diverse desires and real-apparent emotion tasks did not differ according to target group membership and children’s affiliation with the target. Overall, our results suggest that affiliation with the target could potentially undermine older preschoolers’ understanding that the target can hold a belief that deviates from one’s own belief.