Personality and Neural Correlates of Mentalizing Ability.

ABSTRACT: Theory of mind, or mentalizing, defined as the ability to reason about another's mental states, is a crucial psychological function that is disrupted in some forms of psychopathology, but little is known about how individual differences in this ability relate to personality or brain function. One previous study linked mentalizing ability to individual differences in the personality trait Agreeableness. Agreeableness encompasses two major subdimensions: Compassion reflects tendencies toward empathy, prosocial behavior, and interpersonal concern, whereas Politeness captures tendencies to suppress aggressive and exploitative impulses. We hypothesized that Compassion but not Politeness would be associated with better mentalizing ability. This hypothesis was confirmed in Study 1 (N

SUBMITTER: Allen TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5877481 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature