Estimating the Use of Higher-Order Theory of Mind Using Computational Agents

Harmen de Weerd (), Diepgrond Denny and Verbrugge Rineke
Additional contact information
Harmen de Weerd: Institute of Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
Diepgrond Denny: Institute of Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
Verbrugge Rineke: Institute of Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands

The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, 2018, vol. 18, issue 2, 12

Abstract: When people make decisions in a social context, they often make use of theory of mind, by reasoning about unobservable mental content of others. For example, the behavior of a pedestrian who wants to cross the street depends on whether or not he believes that the driver of an oncoming car has seen him or not. People can also reason about the theory of mind abilities of others, leading to recursive thinking of the sort ‘I think that you think that I think…’. Previous research suggests that this ability may be especially effective in simple competitive settings. In this paper, we use a combination of computational agents and Bayesian model selection to determine to what extent people make use of higher-order theory of mind reasoning in a particular competitive game known as matching pennies. We find that while many children and adults appear to make use of theory of mind, participants are also often classified as using a simpler reactive strategy based only on the actions of the directly preceding round. This may indicate that human reasoners do not primarily use their theory of mind abilities to compete with others.

Keywords: theory of mind; agent-based modeling; Bayesian model selection; matching pennies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/bejte-2016-0184 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:bejtec:v:18:y:2018:i:2:p:12:n:14

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/bejte/html

DOI: 10.1515/bejte-2016-0184

Access Statistics for this article

The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics is currently edited by Burkhard C. Schipper

More articles in The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().