Similarities and differences in concepts of mental life among adults and children in five cultures

• Main Authors: Aulino, F. (Author), Brahinsky, J.D (Author), Dulin, J.C (Author), Dzokoto, V.A (Author), Legare, C.H (Author), Luhrmann, T.M (Author), Ng, E. (Author), Ross-Zehnder, N. (Author), Smith, R.E (Author), Weisman, K. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Research 2021
• Subjects: adult; Adult; alternative medicine; child; Child; cognition; Cognition; Cross-Cultural Comparison; cultural factor; cultural psychology; emotional intelligence; Emotional Intelligence; Ethnopsychology; female; Female; human; human development; Human Development; human relation; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; male; Male; Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; perception; Perception; sensation; Sensation; social behavior; Social Behavior
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 How do concepts of mental life vary across cultures? By asking simple questions about humans, animals and other entities – for example, ‘Do beetles get hungry? Remember things? Feel love?’ – we reconstructed concepts of mental life from the bottom up among adults (N = 711) and children (ages 6–12 years, N = 693) in the USA, Ghana, Thailand, China and Vanuatu. This revealed a cross-cultural and developmental continuity: in all sites, among both adults and children, cognitive abilities travelled separately from bodily sensations, suggesting that a mind–body distinction is common across diverse cultures and present by middle childhood. Yet there were substantial cultural and developmental differences in the status of social–emotional abilities – as part of the body, part of the mind or a third category unto themselves. Such differences may have far-reaching social consequences, whereas the similarities identify aspects of human understanding that may be universal. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.