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Estimating another person’s subjective confidence is crucial for social
interaction, but how this inference is achieved is unknown. Previous
research has demonstrated that the speed at which people make decisions is
correlated with their confidence in their decision. Here we show that 1)
subjects’ are able to infer the subjective confidence of another person
simply through the observation of their actions and 2) this inference is
dependent upon the performance of each subject when executing the action.
Crucially, the latter result supports a model in which motor simulation of
an observed action mediates the successful understanding of other minds.
We conclude that kinematic understanding allows access to the higher-order
cognitive processes of others, and that this access plays a central role
in social interactions.
253 views reported since publication in 2012.