Theory of mind among disadvantaged children: Evidence from a field experiment

Gary Charness, John List, Aldo Rustichini, Anya Samek and Jeroen van de Ven ()

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2019, vol. 166, issue C, 174-194

Abstract: Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to correctly attribute mental states to others, is important in social interactions. We evaluate the development of ToM in about 800 mostly disadvantaged young children. We next conduct a field experiment with about 160 children in which we find that the low ToM rates for these disadvantaged children improve substantially in environments where the presence of other children is made salient. We see that ToM performance increases for both younger and older children in the treatment with strong salience, but that the treatment with weaker salience seems to be only effective in improving the ToM rates for older children.

Keywords: Theory of mind; Social salience; Children; Field experiment; Disadvantaged (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B49 C70 C93 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Working Paper: Theory of Mind among Disadvantaged Children: Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:166:y:2019:i:c:p:174-194

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.08.025

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