Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

4-25-2025

Keywords

childhood, experiment, false beliefs, theory of mind

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Developmental Psychology

Abstract

False beliefs occur when individuals are unaware of a change in a situation that makes their beliefs different from reality. Children developing a theory of mind learn to distinguish their own beliefs about a situation from other individuals’ beliefs about the same situation. Through this process, children move away from assuming their thoughts are shared by everyone in their day to day experiences (an egocentric perspective normal to this developmental stage), and toward an understanding of others as individuals with minds, thoughts, and beliefs separate from their own.

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