How Good Are Chimps at Understanding the State of Mind?

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Chimps lack the theory of mind capacities that we have. At least they are nowhere near as articulated. There is some tantalizing evidence that they track the false beliefs that other agents, other chimps or other humans have. But it's not the kind of, it's nothing near like what we can do where I can appreciate that you know something and that meanwhile, my friend Josh doesn't know that either of us know that thing,.

One of the most powerful of all human capacities is the ability to imagine ourselves in hypothetical situations at different times. We can remember the past, but also conjure up possible futures that haven’t yet happened. This simple ability underlies our capability to organize socially and make contracts with other people. Today’s guest, psychologist Adam Bulley, argues that it’s the primary feature that makes us recognizably human, as he argues in the new book The Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight (with Thomas Suddendorf and Jonathan Redshaw).

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Adam Bulley received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Queensland. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre and School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, and the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.

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