Events

Past Event

Understanding the Minds of Others in Fiction, Play, and Reality

April 18, 2022
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
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Online

Event Description

The capacity to understand the internal mental states of others and oneself is central to human social and emotional life. We see its effects in the bonds that tie parents and infants, in friendships among adults, and in our ability to intuit what strangers are thinking and feeling on the basis of subtle cues. But it also operates in play, art, theater, and literature, enabling us to seamlessly understand characters and experience emotion in fictional contexts. Scholarly interest in this consequential faculty dates back centuries, and current investigations span several disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and literary studies. These fields use a variety of overlapping terms—such as empathy, theory of mind, and mentalization—to capture a complex set of phenomena. 

Thanks to recent research, we now know much about the neural bases of this quintessentially human ability, about its onset during development, its usefulness in psychotherapy and its breakdown in certain pathologies, and its pivotal role in the arts. In this seminar, we explore the role of our experiences in play and fictional worlds and our social interactions in creating and consolidating our ability to understand the minds of others.

Event Speakers

  • Thalia R. Goldstein, Associate Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology, George Mason University
  • Meghan L. Meyer, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
  • Lisa Zunshine, Bush-Holbrook Professor of English, University of Kentucky
  • Moderated by Valerio Amoretti, Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience, Columbia University

Event Information

Free and open to the public; RSVP required via Eventbrite. Registered attendees will receive an event link shortly before the seminar begins. This event is part of the Seminars in Society and Neuroscience series.

The Center for Science and Society makes every reasonable effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities. If you require disability accommodations to attend a Center for Science and Society event, please contact us at [email protected] or (212) 853-1612 at least 10 days in advance of the event. For more information, please visit the campus accessibility webpage

Understanding the Minds of Others in Fiction, Play, and Reality