Work

Between prudence and paranoia: Theory of Mind gone right, and wrong

Year: 2023

Type: preprint

Abstract: Agents need to be on their toes when interacting with competitive others in order to avoid being duped. Too much vigilance out of context can, however, be detrimental and produce paranoia. Here, we offer a formal account of this phenomenon through the lens of theory of mind. We simulate agents of different depths of mentalization and show how, if aligned well, deep recursive mentalization gives rise to both successful deception as well as reasonable skepticism. However, we also show how, if theory of mind is too sophisticated, agents become paranoid, losing trust and reward in the process. We discuss our findings in light of computational psychiatry and AI safety.

DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/kh5c4

Authors: Nitay Alon, Lion Schulz, Peter Dayan, Joseph M Barnby

Institutions: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, University of Tübingen, Royal Holloway University of London

Language: English

Topic: Child and Animal Learning Development

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W4388092013

Cites: 39

Cited by: 7

Related to: 10