COWLES FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH IN
ECONOMICS Box 208281
COWLES FOUNDATION DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 1907 The Evolution of 'Theory of Mind:' Theory and Experiments Erik O. Kimbrough, Nikolaus Robalino and Arthur J. Robson September 2013 This paper provides an evolutionary foundation for our capacity to
attribute preferences to others. This ability is intrinsic to game theory, and is a key
component of "Theory of Mind," perhaps the capstone of social cognition. We
argue here that this component of theory of mind allows organisms to efficiently modify
their behavior in strategic environments with a persistent element of novelty. Such
environments are represented here by multistage games of perfect information with randomly
chosen outcomes. "Theory of Mind" then yields a sharp, unambiguous advantage
over less sophisticated, behavioral approaches to strategic interaction. In related
experiments, we show the subscale for social skills in standard tests for autism is a
highly significant determinant of the speed of learning in such games. |
