Theory of Mind

Depression is often associated with profound difficulties in interpersonal functioning and, specifically, a bias to perceive social interactions very negatively. This area of research, in collaboration with Mark Sabbagh, is investigating "theory of mind" as a basic social cognitive skill that might underlie this difficulty.

Theory of mind is the everyday ability to make judgments about others' mental states (e.g., emotions, beliefs, desires). We have determined that clinically depressed patients are significantly worse at judging these mental states when compared to non-depressed controls. In direct contrast, people with a vulnerability to clinical depression who are not currently depressed are significantly more accurate in judging others’ mental states compared to non-depressed individuals. We have seen this enhanced theory of mind performance in individuals with mild sub-clinical depression (dysphoria), those with a past depression currently in remission, and those with a maternal history of depression. We have argued that these depression-vulnerable individuals may have a specific motivation to attend to others’ mental states, and we are currently following up on this research to determine the mechanism through which mild depression confers an advantage in mental state decoding.

This research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).