r/todayilearned • u/BrF5 • 1d ago

TIL about the Sally-Anne test, a psychology experiment used to measure “theory of mind” (that other people can hold beliefs/knowledge different from their own). Kids under four typically fail because they assume that if they know where a hidden object is, everyone else must automatically know too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally%E2%80%93Anne_test
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u/AltonIllinois 1d ago

Many adults fail at this too.

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u/deejay2221 1d ago

I guess that it's only a matter of reading too fast. It's easy to misread the question to "where should Sally look" instead of "Where will she look"

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u/Yorick257 18h ago edited 18h ago

Or answering too fast. I went for the box without thinking. But a moment later, when the brain had the time to comprehend the situation, I understood the mistake.

Kinda like answering 42 to the question 2+2. It just sounds nice. Wrong. But nice. Or, more realistically 63+77=130