Social Cognition in focus: considerations on biological and cultural aspects

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i10.8663

Keywords:

Theory of mind; Sex differences; Social cognition.

Abstract

Investigations about gender/sex differences and their repercussions on social cognition are a relevant and current topic. This paper intends to present an initial approach to research in this area by analysing studies that focus on the relationship between sex differences and the neural bases of the theory of mind. To support the analysis, a literature review was conducted, resulting in 4 publications comprising the set of texts for analysis. The findings in the literature seem to point to differences in the recruitment of areas in the theory of mind neural bases due to sex differences. At the same time, however, some central issues still need to be enlightened by future investigations, such as, 1) the interpretation of the nature of the differences found, as well as the articulation between biological and cultural aspects in this process, and 2) the relationships between differences in the neural bases of the theory of mind, mindreading performance and social behaviour.

References

Baron-Cohen, S. (2002). The extreme male brain theory of autism. Trends in Cognitive Science., 6, 248–254. doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(02)01904-6

Baron-Cohen, S. (2003). The essential difference. London: Penguin Books.

Baron-Cohen, S., Knickmeyer, R.C., & Belmonte, M.K. (2005). Sex differences in the brain: implications for explaining autism. Science, 310(5749), 819-23. doi: 10.1126/science.1115455

Frank, C. K. (2012). P-361 - Sex difference in neural correlates of theory of mind. European Psychiatry, 27, 1. doi:10.1016/s0924-9338(12)74528-5

Frank, C. (2016). Sex differences in the neural basis of theory of mind during development. European Psychiatry, 33, S368. doi: 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.1319

Frank, C. K., Baron-Cohen, S., & Ganzel, B. L. (2015). Sex differences in the neural basis of false-belief and pragmatic language comprehension. NeuroImage, 105, 300–311. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.09.041

Kanazawaa, S, & Vandermassen, G. (2005). Engineers have more sons, nurses have more daughters: an evolutionary psychological extension of Baron–Cohen’s extreme male brain theory of autism. Journal of theoretical biology, 233(4), 589-599. doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2004.11.009

Krach, S., Blümel, I., Marjoram, D., Lataster, T., Krabbendam, L., Weber, J., van OS, J, & Kircher, T. (2009). Are women better mindreaders? Sex differences in neural correlates of mentalizing detected with functional MRI. BMC Neuroscience, 10(9), 1-11. doi:10.1186/1471-2202-10-9

Lai, M., Lombardo, M.V., Chakrabarti, B., Ruigrok, A.N.V, Bullmore, E.T., Suckling, J., Auyeung, B., Happé, F., Szatmari, P., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2018). Neural self-representation in autistic women and association with ‘compensatory camouflaging’. Autism, 1, 1–14. doi: 10.1177/1362361318807159

Martins, C., Barreto, A.L., Castiajo, P. (2014). Teoria da mente ao longo do desenvolvimento normativo: da idade escolar até à idade adulta. Análise Psicológica, 31(4), 377-392. doi: 10.14417/ap.590

Milner, V., McIntosh, H., Colvert, E., & Happé, F. (2019). A Qualitative Exploration of the Female Experience of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49, 2389–2402. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-03906-4

Moriuchi, E. (2019). “Social credit effect” in a sharing economy: A theory of mind and prisoner’s dilemma game theory perspective on the two‐way review and rating system. Psychology and Marketing, 1, 1–22. doi: 10.1002/mar.21301

Muncer, S.J. & Ling (2006). Psychometric analysis of the empathy quotient (EQ) scale.

Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 1111–1119. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.09.020

Nettle, D. (2007). Empathizing and systemizing: What are they, and what do they contribute to our understanding of psychological sex differences? British Journal of Psychology, 98, 237–255.

Nogueira, C.M. (2011). O trabalho duplicado: a divisão sexual no trabalho e na reprodução: um estudo das trabalhadoras do telemarketing. São Paulo: Expressão Popular.

Rogoff, Barbara. (2005). A natureza cultural do desenvolvimento humano. Porto Alegre: Armed.

Russell, T.A., Tchanturia, K., Rahman, Q, & Schmidt, U. (2007). Sex differences in theory of mind: a male advantage on Happe´’s ‘‘cartoon’’ task. Cognition and emotion, 21(7), 1554-1564. doi: 10.1080/02699930601117096

Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception. Cognition, 13(1), 103–128. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(83)90004-5

Zheng, I. & Zheng, Y. (2017). Associations between empathizing-systemizing cognitive style and mental rotation task performance among homosexual men and women in China. Personality and Individual Differences, 106, 10-14.

Published

30/09/2020

How to Cite

SANTOS, M. J.; PANCIERA, S. D. P. Social Cognition in focus: considerations on biological and cultural aspects. Research, Society and Development, [S. l.], v. 9, n. 10, p. e3759108663, 2020. DOI: 10.33448/rsd-v9i10.8663. Disponível em: https://rsdjournal.org/index.php/rsd/article/view/8663. Acesso em: 2 nov. 2024.

Issue

Section

Human and Social Sciences