Thursday, December 31, 2009

Thinking About Other People's Thoughts

Note: This post contains embedded video which may not appear in your RSS reader. Click here to view the full post.

Summary
The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) appears to be dedicated to thinking about other people's thoughts. You can alter people's judgments of others by interfering with the rTPJ's activity.


(Video: TED)
Correction
In the video, Rebecca Saxe mistakenly attributed the following quote to Alan Greenspan when it was actually said by Robert McCloskey:
I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant.
Commentary
Moral thinking is critical in many legal systems. In fact, the insanity defense depends on demonstrating that the defendant is incapable of moral thinking (temporarily or permanently). I imagine this research has far-reaching consequences.

Meta
Suppose you know that someone has a deficient rTPJ; how does that alter your perception of their judgments?

0 comments:

Post a Comment

In addition to comments, please indicate any typographical errors or issues related to this post.
Or you can contact me in private.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.