Nice and Nasty ToM Behaviors

Abstract

Considerable research has highlighted that mind-reading abilities (theory of mind [ToM]) underpin particular aspects of children’s social functioning (Astington, 2003). Socially competent behaviors rely on the understanding of mental states. Children with more advanced ToM abilities show better social skills in the classroom and are less likely to receive negative behavioral evaluations from peers and aggressive evaluations from teachers (Belacchi & Farina, 2010; Diesendruck & Ben-Eliyahu, 2006). ToM is a powerful social tool that affects social relationships and fosters adjustment in everyday social contexts. Consequently, it might be believed that antisocial behavior reflects a weakness of social-cognitive skills. Although strong cognitive ToM skills are important for prosocial behavior, they do not guarantee it. Prosocial behavior requires both an understanding of and response to social cues that are influenced by cognitive ToM (awareness of thoughts), affective cognitive ToM (recognition of emotions), and affective empathy (the desire to respond to the emotions of others). Some children and adults consistently use their “mind-reading” skills for everyday antisocial purposes. Hence, the relationship between ToM and prosocial conduct is far from straightforward and simple. Just recognizing what other people need does not mean that a child will seek to meet those needs. Children may use their mind-reading abilities to manipulate, outwit, tease, or trick their peers (Astington, 2003). ToM skills may be helpful in concealing the antisocial child’s true intentions and goals by making the behavior appear inoffensive or at least ambiguous to others (Renouf et al., 2010). Thus, ToM can be used to engage both prosocial and antisocial or Machiavellian behaviors (Arefi, 2010). The expressions nice ToM and nasty ToM have been used to differentiate behaviors requiring prosocial use and antisocial use of ToM abilities, respectively (Ronald et al., 2005). Happé and Frith (1996) first proposed the expression theory of nasty minds to explain an intact but skewed A newsletter dedicated to speech & language in school-age children