Author(s)

Pooja Karan

Ridge High School, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, USA.

The theory of mind is the ability for an organism to understand the mental state of other beings, and attribute and predict their behaviors based on this understanding. While humans demonstrate the innate mental content of a theory of mind, understanding whether or not other organisms have a theory of mind is more difficult, especially because it is viewed from a human-centric lens, leading people to wonder about other animals. This therefore begs the question: do non-human animals have the innate mental content of the theory of mind? This question can be explored through the perspective of high-intelligence non-human animals—primates, corvids, and canines—by comparing them to humans, in order to determine if there is a phylogenetic closeness to humans and the capacity to have a theory of mind in other animals. Considering this purpose, by comparing the cognitive ability of non-human and human animals in regard to a theory of mind, the possibility for a shared capacity to understand another animal’s mind is better understood.

Theory of Mind, Phylogenetics, False-Belief Tests, Social Cues, Mental States, Evolution, Anthropocentrism

Karan, P. (2023) Understanding the Concept of Human Superiority: An Exploration of the Theory of Mind in Non-Human Species. Advances in Anthropology, 13, 295-304. doi: 10.4236/aa.2023.134019.