The ability to recognize and understand thoughts, beliefs, desires and intentions of other people in order to make sense of their behaviour and predict what they are going to do next.

Limitations in Theory of Mind abilities can effect daily life in the following ways:

• Difficulties reading the messages in someone’s eyes
• A tendency to make a literal interpretation of what someone says
• A tendency to be considered disrespectful and rude
• Remarkable honesty
• Delay in the development of the art of persuasion, compromise and conflict resolution
• A different form of introspection and self-consciousness
• Problems knowing when something may cause embarrassment
• A longer time to process social information, due to using intelligence rather than intuition
• Physical and emotional exhaustion from socializing

Information courtesy of Professor Tony Attwood.