STUDIA PSYCHOLOGICA, 53, 2011, 4 351 MINDREADING AND EMPATHY AS PREDICTORS OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR Vladimíra ČAVOJOVÁ, Zuzana BELOVIČOVÁ, Miroslav SIROTA Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences Dúbravská cesta 9, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovak Republic E-mail: vladimira.cavojova@savba.sk, zuzana.belovicova@savba.sk, miroslav.sirota@savba.sk Abstract: Social understanding is usually conceptualized as consisting of understanding emotions (i.e., empathy) and understanding the other’s mental states (i.e., theory of mind or mindreading). Both these facets of social understanding are hypothesized to be related to prosocial orientation. The purpose of the presented study is, therefore, to examine whether theory of mind or empathy is the stronger predictor of prosocial orientation. As a secondary aim, we also explored the question of gender differences as an important differentiating factor in both theory of mind and empathy. 197 preadolescents aged 11 to 15 yrs. participated in the study. Participants filled out two tests of theory of mind skills, three empathy questionnaires and the prosocial orientation was determined by peer-nominated questionnaire. The results corroborated the idea that the higher the social understanding, the higher the prosocial orientation. Moreover, theory of mind pre- dicted prosocial behavior better than empathy. Girls outperformed boys in both empathy and mindreading measures. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Key words: social understanding, theory of mind, empathy, prosocial behavior INTRODUCTION Social understanding is a core ability for successful living among any group – whether it is a group of hunters and gatherers, a work- ing team or a group of teenagers. Early so- cial understanding is believed to have pre- dictive links to later social understanding and behavior. Individual differences in the abilities of social understanding have been observed since early childhood. Children better in social understanding are believed to have more quality friendships, better abil- ity to resolve conflicts and better adjustment in school (Hughes, 2011). Traditionally, it is believed that social un- derstanding is related to many other con- cepts, such as moral reasoning, self-under- standing and prosocial behavior (Bosacki, 2003). Most often two facets of social un- derstanding have been studied: understand- ing of other’s beliefs and understanding of other’s emotions. Typically, understanding of emotions is seen as a core component of empathy and understanding of other’s be- liefs (predominantly false) as a core compo- nent of mindreading (theory of mind). Mindreading usually relates to the ability to infer and attribute mental states, contents This research was supported, in part, by Grant Agency VEGA (Grant No. 1/0541/09). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Vladimíra Čavojová.