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How Does the Mind Grow? Cross-Cultural Intuitive Theories of Mental Development

Xianwei Meng¹; Ryuji Oguni^2,3; Kuniyuki Nishina^4,5; Taro Murakami⁶; Yuka Mizuno¹; Jinjing (Jenny) Wang⁷

¹ Graduate School of Informatics, Nagoya University · ² Faculty of Psychology, Shujitsu University · ³ Research Organization of Open Innovation and Collaboration, Ritsumeikan University · ⁴ Faculty of Informatics, Showa Women’s University · ⁵ Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University · ⁶ Faculty of Education and Care of Early Childhood, Tokoha University · ⁷ Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University

How does the mind grow? Despite centuries of philosophical and psychological inquiry, little is known about how ordinary people intuitively conceptualize mental development. Across six countries (Australia, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States), adult participants reported their intuitions about mental development by indicating when they think various mental capacities first emerge. Across tasks and cultures, intuitions about mental development were consistently organized along two dimensions: an earlier-developing perceptual and experiential dimension (e.g., seeing, fear, hunger, pain) and a later-developing reflective and evaluative dimension (e.g., reasoning, beliefs, self-restraint, pride). Competing models were ruled out, showing that this structure is unique to lay beliefs about mental development. These dimensions also aligned with participants’ intuitions about the origins of mental capacities within a nature–nurture framework. Together, the findings reveal a consistent cross-cultural pattern for reasoning about mental development and illuminate the intuitive architecture of mind perception.

DOI

10.1177/09567976261453926

Volume

37 (7)

Pages

493-513

Language

en

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BibTeX

Sources

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