Social cognition for competition versus cooperation

道德判断取决于对内部心理状态的评估，如信念、意图和动机，而不仅仅是外部的、可观察到的行为。因此，形成对他人的道德判断并与他们互动需要对他们的思想进行推理-这种能力被称为心理理论。例如，判断一个行为的道德性需要这样的问题：“她是故意在他的咖啡里下毒，还是认为那是糖？”“先前的工作已经研究了心理理论在某些情况下对道德判断的作用，例如当人们对第三方互动做出判断时，区分故意和意外伤害。然而，人们不仅仅是观察者。人们是社会世界的积极参与者;他们考虑与他们互动的社会伙伴的思想。对于交互中的积极参与者来说，心理理论过程可能在重要方面有所不同。在个体目标涉及社会联系和协调而不是冲突和社会距离的背景下，理解心理理论可能具有特别的社会重要性。例如，在一个被称为去人性化的过程中，个体远离意识到他人是有意图和思想的思考，感觉代理人。研究表明，人们可能会将敌人非人化，以证明自己的侵略行为，无论是在侵略之前还是之后。现有的研究揭示了心理理论对道德判断的重要性，同时也为心理理论可能受到社会情境的调节提供了线索。目前的工作解决了心理理论研究中的一个关键空白，通过系统地研究心理理论如何在两种不同的动机背景下（竞争和合作）用于社会互动。该项目使用来自社会，认知和发展心理学和神经科学的方法和理论方法。调查竞争与合作的社会认知差异的早期出现以及潜在的神经机制将为学者和政策制定者提供对手头问题的规模和性质的见解。最终，理解跨动机背景的社会认知将揭示从政治分歧到种族不和的社会问题。研究人员考虑了关于心理理论在跨动机背景的社会互动中的作用的三个基本问题。首先，不同的神经机制支持竞争与合作的心理理论吗？第二，在这些背景下，不同的发展轨迹是否构成了心理理论的基础？第三，这些差异对群体间冲突的社会后果是什么，比如人们是否支持外交努力？这项研究将使用功能性磁共振成像来研究典型发育中的成年人和自闭症成年人的神经过程，自闭症是一种神经发育障碍，其特征是社交困难。为了跟踪发展轨迹，该研究将对3至5岁的典型发育儿童应用新的范式，这是一个与新兴心理理论能力相关的年龄组。为了调查心理理论过程中可能存在的差异的社会后果，并测试干预措施的影响，该研究将研究社会中具有冲突历史的现有群体。通过整合社会心理学，发展和认知神经科学的方法，该项目旨在提供一个全面的心理理论如何在社会互动的真实的和相应的背景下运作。此外，测试认知障碍是否与无法区分这些背景有关，也将促进我们对使大多数人能够做出这种区分的认知能力的理解。最后，研究可能提供初步的指导，如何通过心理过程的理论可能减少潜在的群体间冲突的情况。

Moral judgment depends on an assessment of internal mental states such as beliefs, intentions, and motivations, and not just external, observable actions. Thus, forming moral judgments of other people and interacting with them requires reasoning about their minds--a capacity known as theory of mind. For example, judging the morality of an action requires questions such as "Did she INTEND to poison his coffee, or did she THINK it was sugar?" Prior work has examined the role of theory of mind for moral judgment for some contexts, such as distinguishing intentional from accidental harms when people make judgments regarding third-party interactions. However, people are not mere observers. People are active participants in the social world; they consider the minds of their social partners with whom they are interacting. Theory of mind processes may differ in important ways for an active participant in an interaction. Understanding theory of mind in contexts where individuals' goals involve social connection and coordination versus strife and social distance may be of particular societal importance. For example, in a process called dehumanization, individuals distance themselves from being aware of others as thinking, feeling agents with intentions and minds. Research suggests people may dehumanize the enemy to justify their own aggression, either before aggressing or after the fact. Thus existing research reveals the importance of theory of mind for moral judgment, and it also provides clues that theory of mind might be modulated by social context. The current work addresses a key gap in theory of mind research, by examining systematically how theory of mind is deployed for social interaction in two distinct motivational contexts--competition and cooperation. This project uses methodological and theoretical approaches from social, cognitive and developmental psychology and neuroscience. Investigating the early emergence of differences in social cognition for competition versus cooperation and the underlying neural mechanisms will provide insight for scholars and policy makers into the scale and nature of the problems at hand. Ultimately, understanding social cognition across motivational contexts will shed light on societal problems, from political disagreement to ethnic discord.The investigators consider three fundamental questions about the role of theory of mind in social interaction across motivational contexts. First, do distinct neural mechanisms support theory of mind for competition versus cooperation? Second, do distinct developmental trajectories underlie theory of mind across these contexts? Third, what are the social consequences of these differences for intergroup conflict, such as whether people support diplomatic efforts? The research will use functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural processes in typically developing adults and adults with autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction. To track the developmental trajectories, the research will apply novel paradigms to typically developing children between 3 and 5 years of age, an age group associated with emerging theory of mind capacities. To investigate the social consequences of possible differences in theory of mind processes and to test the impact of an intervention, the research will examine existing groups in society with a history of conflict. By integrating social psychological, developmental, and cognitive neuroscientific methods, the project aims to provide a comprehensive account of how theory of mind operates in real and consequential contexts of social interaction. In addition, testing whether cognitive impairments are associated with an inability to distinguish between these contexts will also advance our understanding of the cognitive capacities that enable most people to be able to make such distinctions. Finally, the research may provide preliminary guidance on how situations of potential intergroup conflict may be reduced via theory of mind processes.