Mind Games: How Social Distance Affects Your Judgement

Avery Sinclair in Mind & Education August 2025 • 4 min read.

"Uncover the surprising ways your brain tricks you into thinking others share your beliefs and how to overcome this bias in relationships and everyday life."

We all like to think we understand each other, but how often are we truly seeing the world through someone else's eyes? The ability to attribute mental states to others, often called Theory of Mind, is crucial for social interactions. However, both adults and children frequently project their own thoughts and feelings onto others, leading to misunderstandings and biases.

This tendency to assume others share our knowledge is known as egocentric bias or the 'curse of knowledge.' Imagine knowing a secret and then being surprised that someone else doesn't know it – that's egocentric bias in action. But what if the distance between you and another person influences this bias? Does how similar you are to someone affect your ability to understand their perspective?

New research explores whether social distance – factors like similarity, likeability, and group membership – plays a role in how accurately we can understand what others believe. This exploration into the nuances of social cognition reveals surprising insights into our everyday interactions.

The Social Distance Effect: Bridging the Gap in Understanding

Distorted lens representing another person's perspective

Researchers Benjamin G. Farrar and Ljerka Ostojić from the University of Cambridge investigated how social distance affects egocentric biases when reasoning about false beliefs. The core question: Do we overestimate the likelihood that others know what we know, and does this change based on how close we feel to them? To explore this, they conducted a series of experiments using a modified version of the classic false belief task.

In these experiments, participants read scenarios where a protagonist places an object in one location, then that object is moved while the protagonist is away. Participants were then asked to estimate where the protagonist would look for the object upon their return. Crucially, some participants knew the object's true location (informed condition), while others did not (ambiguous condition). The researchers manipulated the social distance by varying the protagonist: an in-group member, an out-group member, or even a dog.

The team set out to answer key questions:

Are adults biased by their own knowledge when guessing what others believe?
Does social distance change the strength of this bias?
Does this social distance effect extend to non-human animals?

Across three experiments, the curse of knowledge was consistently observed when participants considered in-group protagonists. In other words, people were more likely to assume that someone from their own group would know the true location of the object, even when that person had no way of knowing. Interestingly, this bias persisted, though to a lesser extent, when participants reasoned about out-group members and even dogs. The findings suggest that regardless of how different we are from someone, we still tend to project our own knowledge onto them to some degree.

What This Means for You

While the study didn't fully support the idea that social distance significantly reduces egocentric biases, it underscores a crucial point: we are all prone to assuming others share our knowledge. Whether you're navigating personal relationships or working in a diverse team, recognizing this bias is the first step toward better communication and understanding. By actively seeking out other perspectives and questioning your assumptions, you can bridge the gap and foster more meaningful connections.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198616, Alternate LINK

Title: Does Social Distance Modulate Adults’ Egocentric Biases When Reasoning About False Beliefs?

Subject: Multidisciplinary

Journal: PLOS ONE

Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Authors: Benjamin G. Farrar, Ljerka Ostojić

Published: 2018-06-08

Everything You Need To Know

What is 'Theory of Mind,' and what are some potential implications of lacking a fully developed Theory of Mind, based on the text?

Theory of Mind is the ability to understand that other people have their own thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that may be different from our own. While not directly explored in the text provided, difficulties with Theory of Mind are often associated with social challenges. The provided text emphasizes that while we possess Theory of Mind, we often overestimate its accuracy, assuming others know what we know.

Can you explain 'egocentric bias' or the 'curse of knowledge' and give an example of how it manifests in everyday situations?

Egocentric bias, also known as the 'curse of knowledge,' is the tendency to assume that others share our same knowledge, beliefs, and perspectives. It occurs because it's difficult to remember what it's like not to know something once we know it. The text illustrates this with the example of knowing a secret and being surprised when others don't know it. Overcoming this bias requires active effort to consider what others might not know.

How does 'social distance' affect our ability to accurately understand others, and why is this concept important?

Social distance, in this context, refers to how similar or connected we feel to another person based on factors like shared group membership, likeability, or familiarity. While the research mentioned explored whether greater social distance would reduce egocentric bias, the findings suggest that even when we feel distant from someone, we still tend to project our own knowledge onto them to some degree. This implies that the 'curse of knowledge' is a robust bias that is hard to shake.

In the context of understanding how we perceive others' beliefs, what is a 'false belief task,' and what does it reveal about our cognitive biases?

The false belief task, as utilized by Farrar and Ostojić, involves scenarios where a person believes something that is not true. Participants observe a situation where a character places an object in one location, and then the object is moved without the character's knowledge. The participants are then asked where the character will look for the object. This task helps researchers assess whether people can accurately understand that others can have beliefs different from their own and whether they can set aside their own knowledge when predicting others' behavior.

What were the key findings of the research by Farrar and Ostojić regarding social distance and egocentric biases, and what are the broader implications of these findings?

The research by Farrar and Ostojić found that the curse of knowledge persisted even when considering out-group members or even animals, implying that our own knowledge significantly biases us when trying to understand the beliefs of others. This bias may be more attenuated when considering those very different from ourselves, but it's still present. This means that regardless of how different someone is from us, we still tend to overestimate the degree to which they share our knowledge. This has implications for communication, collaboration, and understanding in diverse environments, highlighting the need to actively seek out different perspectives.