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Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind
Theory of mind (ToM) is defined as the process of taking another’s perspective. Anthropomorphism can be seen as the extension of ToM to non-human entities. This review examines the literature concerning ToM and anthropomorphism in relation to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), specific...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2018
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5932358/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29755383 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00528 |
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author | Atherton, Gray Cross, Liam |
author_facet | Atherton, Gray Cross, Liam |
author_sort | Atherton, Gray |
collection | PubMed |
description | Theory of mind (ToM) is defined as the process of taking another’s perspective. Anthropomorphism can be seen as the extension of ToM to non-human entities. This review examines the literature concerning ToM and anthropomorphism in relation to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), specifically addressing the questions of how and why those on the spectrum both show an increased interest for anthropomorphism and may even show improved ToM abilities when judging the mental states of anthropomorphic characters. This review highlights that while individuals with ASD traditionally show deficits on a wide range of ToM tests, such as recognizing facial emotions, such ToM deficits may be ameliorated if the stimuli presented is cartoon or animal-like rather than in human form. Individuals with ASD show a greater interest in anthropomorphic characters and process the features of these characters using methods typically reserved for human stimuli. Personal accounts of individuals with ASD also suggest they may identify more closely with animals than other humans. It is shown how the social motivations hypothesized to underlie the anthropomorphizing of non-human targets may lead those on the spectrum to seek social connections and therefore gain ToM experience and expertise amongst unlikely sources. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5932358 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-59323582018-05-11 Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind Atherton, Gray Cross, Liam Front Psychol Psychology Theory of mind (ToM) is defined as the process of taking another’s perspective. Anthropomorphism can be seen as the extension of ToM to non-human entities. This review examines the literature concerning ToM and anthropomorphism in relation to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), specifically addressing the questions of how and why those on the spectrum both show an increased interest for anthropomorphism and may even show improved ToM abilities when judging the mental states of anthropomorphic characters. This review highlights that while individuals with ASD traditionally show deficits on a wide range of ToM tests, such as recognizing facial emotions, such ToM deficits may be ameliorated if the stimuli presented is cartoon or animal-like rather than in human form. Individuals with ASD show a greater interest in anthropomorphic characters and process the features of these characters using methods typically reserved for human stimuli. Personal accounts of individuals with ASD also suggest they may identify more closely with animals than other humans. It is shown how the social motivations hypothesized to underlie the anthropomorphizing of non-human targets may lead those on the spectrum to seek social connections and therefore gain ToM experience and expertise amongst unlikely sources. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-04-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5932358/ /pubmed/29755383 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00528 Text en Copyright © 2018 Atherton and Cross. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Atherton, Gray Cross, Liam Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind |
title | Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind |
title_full | Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind |
title_fullStr | Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind |
title_full_unstemmed | Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind |
title_short | Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind |
title_sort | seeing more than human: autism and anthropomorphic theory of mind |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5932358/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29755383 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00528 |
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