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Explicit Mentalizing Mechanisms and Their Adaptive Role in Memory Conformity
Memory conformity occurs when an individual endorses what other individuals remember about past events. Research on memory conformity is currently dominated by a ‘forensic’ perspective, which views the phenomenon as inherently undesirable. This is because conformity not only distorts the accuracy of...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3630205/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23637974 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062106 |
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author | Wheeler, Rebecca Allan, Kevin Tsivilis, Dimitris Martin, Douglas Gabbert, Fiona |
author_facet | Wheeler, Rebecca Allan, Kevin Tsivilis, Dimitris Martin, Douglas Gabbert, Fiona |
author_sort | Wheeler, Rebecca |
collection | PubMed |
description | Memory conformity occurs when an individual endorses what other individuals remember about past events. Research on memory conformity is currently dominated by a ‘forensic’ perspective, which views the phenomenon as inherently undesirable. This is because conformity not only distorts the accuracy of an individual's memory, but also produces false corroboration between individuals, effects that act to undermine criminal justice systems. There is growing awareness, however, that memory conformity may be interpreted more generally as an adaptive social behavior regulated by explicit mentalizing mechanisms. Here, we provide novel evidence in support of this emerging alternative theoretical perspective. We carried out a memory conformity experiment which revealed that explicit belief-simulation (i.e. using one's own beliefs to model what other people believe) systematically biases conformity towards like-minded individuals, even when there is no objective evidence that they have a more accurate memory than dissimilar individuals. We suggest that this bias is functional, i.e. adaptive, to the extent that it fosters trust, and hence cooperation, between in-group versus out-group individuals. We conclude that memory conformity is, in more fundamental terms, a highly desirable product of explicit mentalizing mechanisms that promote adaptive forms of social learning and cooperation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3630205 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36302052013-05-01 Explicit Mentalizing Mechanisms and Their Adaptive Role in Memory Conformity Wheeler, Rebecca Allan, Kevin Tsivilis, Dimitris Martin, Douglas Gabbert, Fiona PLoS One Research Article Memory conformity occurs when an individual endorses what other individuals remember about past events. Research on memory conformity is currently dominated by a ‘forensic’ perspective, which views the phenomenon as inherently undesirable. This is because conformity not only distorts the accuracy of an individual's memory, but also produces false corroboration between individuals, effects that act to undermine criminal justice systems. There is growing awareness, however, that memory conformity may be interpreted more generally as an adaptive social behavior regulated by explicit mentalizing mechanisms. Here, we provide novel evidence in support of this emerging alternative theoretical perspective. We carried out a memory conformity experiment which revealed that explicit belief-simulation (i.e. using one's own beliefs to model what other people believe) systematically biases conformity towards like-minded individuals, even when there is no objective evidence that they have a more accurate memory than dissimilar individuals. We suggest that this bias is functional, i.e. adaptive, to the extent that it fosters trust, and hence cooperation, between in-group versus out-group individuals. We conclude that memory conformity is, in more fundamental terms, a highly desirable product of explicit mentalizing mechanisms that promote adaptive forms of social learning and cooperation. Public Library of Science 2013-04-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3630205/ /pubmed/23637974 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062106 Text en © 2013 Wheeler et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Wheeler, Rebecca Allan, Kevin Tsivilis, Dimitris Martin, Douglas Gabbert, Fiona Explicit Mentalizing Mechanisms and Their Adaptive Role in Memory Conformity |
title | Explicit Mentalizing Mechanisms and Their Adaptive Role in Memory Conformity |
title_full | Explicit Mentalizing Mechanisms and Their Adaptive Role in Memory Conformity |
title_fullStr | Explicit Mentalizing Mechanisms and Their Adaptive Role in Memory Conformity |
title_full_unstemmed | Explicit Mentalizing Mechanisms and Their Adaptive Role in Memory Conformity |
title_short | Explicit Mentalizing Mechanisms and Their Adaptive Role in Memory Conformity |
title_sort | explicit mentalizing mechanisms and their adaptive role in memory conformity |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3630205/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23637974 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062106 |
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