ArticleScientific reports2023
The illusion of the mind-body divide is attenuated in males.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- The gender-sex incongruence is partly a mind-body incongruence.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Means to an end: teleological bias in moral reasoning.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Are You a Closet Dualist? Evidence From Brief Implicit Association Task.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025Article
- Davinci the Dualist: The Mind-Body Divide in Large Language Models and in Human Learners.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2024Article
- Consciousness isn't "hard"-it's human psychology that makes it so!Neuroscience of consciousness · 2024Article
- The "Hard Problem of Consciousness" Arises from Human Psychology.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2023Article
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1 author.
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Abstract
A large literature suggests that people are intuitive Dualists-they tend to perceive the mind as ethereal, distinct from the body. Here, we ask whether Dualism emanates from within the human psyche, guided, in part, by theory of mind (ToM). Past research has shown that males are poorer mind-readers than females. If ToM begets Dualism, then males should exhibit weaker Dualism, and instead, lean towards Physicalism (i.e., they should view bodies and minds alike). Experiments 1-2 show that males indeed perceive the psyche as more embodied-as more likely to emerge in a replica of one's body, and less likely to persist in its absence (after life). Experiment 3 further shows that males are less inclined towards Empiricism-a putative byproduct of Dualism. A final analysis confirms that males' ToM scores are lower, and ToM scores further correlate with embodiment intuitions (in Experiments 1-2). These observations (from Western participants) cannot establish universality, but the association of Dualism with ToM suggests its roots are psychological. Thus, the illusory mind-body divide may arise from the very workings of the human mind.
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