Feedback on mental state inferences improves accuracy and awareness

Journal article

Accurate inference of the mental states of others is essential for successful social interaction. Concerningly, previous work shows that humans are less accurate when inferring the views of out-group members relative to in-group members, but are unaware of this difference in accuracy (Payne et al., 2024). Across two studies (Experiment 1: n=142; Experiment 2: n= 90) we asked whether feedback on the accuracy of mental state inferences could increase the accuracy of, and/or recalibrate participants’ confidence in the accuracy of, mental state inferences for outgroup members. Feedback specific to individual targets significantly improved the accuracy of inferences when inferring those targets’ views for both in-group and out-group members, but did not generalise to other group members. Furthermore, participants were able to use feedback to calibrate their confidence in the accuracy of their outgroup inferences. These results demonstrate that, with targeted feedback, people are more able to understand the minds of both in-group and out-group members, and become more aware of their ability to do so.

Authors: Payne, B; Bird, G; Catmur, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Journal: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Publication date: 2025-11-24
• Acceptance date: 2025-11-05
• DOI: 10.1177/17470218251404419
• EISSN: 1747-0226
• ISSN: 1747-0218
• Language: English
• Keywords: feedback; mentalising; theory of mind; mental state inference; out-group