The effect of threat perception on theory of mind: The role of emotion regulation skills

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand others' subjective mental states, such as desires, intentions, beliefs, thoughts, and goals, and to explain others' behaviors by referring to these subjective mental states. Although children have a developed ToM and adults have a mature ToM, they may interpret underlying mental processes of others' behaviors depending on social situations. Among these social situations, the perception of threat emerges as a variable that can affect ToM ability. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of threat perception on ToM performance in school-aged children and adults and whether this effect varies depending on emotion regulation. In this context, the relationship between threat perception and ToM and the role of emotion regulation skills in this relationship were investigated. The sample of the study consists of a total of 160 children aged 8-11 years (nboys= 79) and 128 adults aged 18-47 years (nboys=41). The data collection process of the study conducted with children was carried out face-to-face at the school where the children continued their education. During the data collection process, mothers filled out the Informed Consent Form, Demographic Information Form, and the Emotion Regulation Scale to evaluate the emotion regulation skills of the children. Children were presented with scenarios with and without threatening and anxiety-provoking interactions, respectively, and a Theory of Mind Task, in which questions were asked about the mental states of the characters in the scenarios. In the study with adults, the data were collected online through Google Forms, and the measurements were presented in the same order. The results of the 2X2 two-factor Analysis of Variance showed that the main effect of the group on mind reading was only observed in adults, while the main effect on intention attribution was observed in both samples. The main effect of emotion regulation skills on mind reading was only seen in children, while there was no main effect on intention attribution in either sample. In simple effect analyses, it was found that children with high emotion regulation in the experimental group performed significantly better in mind reading compared to those with low emotion regulation. Among adults with low emotion regulation, those in the control group performed significantly better in mind reading compared to those in the experimental group. In both children and adults, it was found that regardless of high or low emotion regulation skills, the intention attributions of participants in the experimental group were significantly more negative compared to those in the control group. Keywords: theory of mind, threat perception, emotion regulation.