Talking about other's mind: Do maternal mental state talk differentiate depending on the characteristics of the other?

By examining whether mothers' mental state talk varies based on the identities of others (cultural identity, perceived SES, age), the current study seeks to understand the developmental origins of the ingroup advantage of children's mental state understanding. Using a mixed-design and random assignment, 162 Turkish mothers and their children (M = 10.09 years, SD = 1.37; 81 boys) participated in this study. Mothers were asked to describe photos to their children and their mental state talk was coded. Whereas mothers referred to the emotions of the adults in their ingroups' more, this difference was not found when describing photos of children. This study presents an important step to understand how mental state talk could differ depending on the target's characteristics.