How Cultural Models of Mind Affect Actor Director Task Performance

The actor director task (DT) has been used extensively to assess differences in perspective taking ability. Previous studies have found that individuals from collectivist cultures outperform those from individualist cultures in the DT. The current study uses an online form of the DT to assess individuals from European, New Zealand Pasifika and Māori cultural groups. Pasifika and Māori cultures tend to be categorised as collectivist, but have theory of mind norms that differ from previously assessed collectivist cultures. It is hypothesised that these norms will advantage Pasifika in the DT but not Māori. No significant differences are found in performance on the DT across all three cultural groups. All three groups replicated general performance on the DT in previous studies.