How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter?
This research investigated how accurately people infer what others are thinking after observing a brief sample of their behaviour and whether culture/similarity is a relevant factor. Target participants (14 British and 14 Mediterraneans) were cued to think about either positive or negative events th...
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| Format: | Article |
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Public Library of Science
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47749/ |
| _version_ | 1848797620916453376 |
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| author | Valanides, Constantinos Sheppard, Elizabeth Mitchell, Peter |
| author_facet | Valanides, Constantinos Sheppard, Elizabeth Mitchell, Peter |
| author_sort | Valanides, Constantinos |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This research investigated how accurately people infer what others are thinking after observing a brief sample of their behaviour and whether culture/similarity is a relevant factor. Target participants (14 British and 14 Mediterraneans) were cued to think about either positive or negative events they had experienced. Subsequently, perceiver participants (16 British and 16 Mediterraneans) watched videos of the targets thinking about these things. Perceivers (both groups) were significantly accurate in judging when targets had been cued to think of something positive versus something negative, indicating notable inferential ability. Additionally, Mediterranean perceivers were better than British perceivers in making such inferences, irrespective of nationality of the targets, something that was statistically accounted for by corresponding group differences in levels of independently measured collectivism. The results point to the need for further research to investigate the possibility that being reared in a collectivist culture fosters ability in interpreting others’ behaviour. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:06:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-47749 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:06:47Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-477492020-05-04T19:16:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47749/ How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? Valanides, Constantinos Sheppard, Elizabeth Mitchell, Peter This research investigated how accurately people infer what others are thinking after observing a brief sample of their behaviour and whether culture/similarity is a relevant factor. Target participants (14 British and 14 Mediterraneans) were cued to think about either positive or negative events they had experienced. Subsequently, perceiver participants (16 British and 16 Mediterraneans) watched videos of the targets thinking about these things. Perceivers (both groups) were significantly accurate in judging when targets had been cued to think of something positive versus something negative, indicating notable inferential ability. Additionally, Mediterranean perceivers were better than British perceivers in making such inferences, irrespective of nationality of the targets, something that was statistically accounted for by corresponding group differences in levels of independently measured collectivism. The results point to the need for further research to investigate the possibility that being reared in a collectivist culture fosters ability in interpreting others’ behaviour. Public Library of Science 2017-11-07 Article PeerReviewed Valanides, Constantinos, Sheppard, Elizabeth and Mitchell, Peter (2017) How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? PLoS ONE, 12 (11). e0187586/1-e0187586/14. ISSN 1932-6203 Interpersonal inferences retrodiction culture collectivism individualism http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187586 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187586 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187586 |
| spellingShingle | Interpersonal inferences retrodiction culture collectivism individualism Valanides, Constantinos Sheppard, Elizabeth Mitchell, Peter How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? |
| title | How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? |
| title_full | How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? |
| title_fullStr | How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? |
| title_full_unstemmed | How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? |
| title_short | How accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? |
| title_sort | how accurately can other people infer your thoughts -- and does culture matter? |
| topic | Interpersonal inferences retrodiction culture collectivism individualism |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47749/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47749/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47749/ |