Humans learn to trust new partners by evaluating the outcomes of repeated interpersonal interactions. However, available prior information concerning the reputation of these partners may alter the way in which outcomes affect learning. This thesis combines for the first time behavioral, computational, psychophysiological and neural models in a direct comparison of interaction-based and prior-based decision-to-trust mechanisms. Three studies are presented, in which participants played repeated and single trust games with anonymous counterparts. We manipulated several conditions: whether or not reputational priors were provided, the probability of reciprocation (trustworthiness) of each counterpart, and the time-horizon of the relationships. The thesis addresses several challenges involved in understanding the complex behavior of people in social contexts, by investigating whether and how they integrate reputation into decisions to trust unfamiliar others, by designing ways to combine reputation information and observed trustworthiness into unified models, and by providing insight into information on the brain processes underlying social cognition. Numerous models, algorithms, game theoretical and neuroscientific methods are used to examine these questions. The thesis presents several new reinforcement learning (RL) models and explores how well these models explain the behavioral and neural interactions between trust and reputation. The performance of the new models was tested using experiments of varying complexity. These experiments showed that model-based algorithms correlate better with behavioral and neural responses than model-free RL algorithms. More specifically, when no prior information was available our results were consistent with previous studies in reporting the neural detection of parametric estimates of RL models within the bilateral caudate nuclei. However, our work additionally showed that this correlation was modified when reputational priors on counterparts are provided. Indeed participants continued to rely on priors even when experience shed doubt on their accuracy. Notably, violations of trust from counterparts with high pro-social reputations elicited both stronger electrodermal responses and caudate deactivations when priors were available than when they were not. However, tolerance to such violations appeared to be mediated by priors-enhanced connectivity between the caudate nucleus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which was anti-correlated with retaliation rates. Moreover, in addition to affecting learning mechanisms, violation of trust clearly influenced emotional arousal and increased subsequent recognition of partners who had betrayed trust.

In this thesis I will talk about social robots, their appearance, and people’s concerns about potential negative impacts that social robotics technology could have on humans and their identity. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of why people fear social robots, and what the role of humanlike appearance is within this process. Social robots represent a new, fascinating technology. Research in social robotics not only develops new and better social robots but also tries to understand and prevent eventual problems that could arise when people and robots coexist. Moreover, the relations and reactions to social robots, especially those who highly resemble humans, is also an interesting topic from a social psychology point of view. Taking up professor Ishiguro’s words, developing androids opens up the question of “what is human?”. The study of psychological processes related to machines that imitate real persons allows us to know more about ourselves as human beings.

Technology has a great impact on our everyday lives; computers, smart devices, sensors and digital technology in general, try to communicate with us to accomplish some task. Each step of the communication however, requires understanding of the future behavioral utterance, deciding on what is the circumstance and the social context, and finally predicting the individual’s needs. Even if computers are so deeply involved in our daily lives, they lack basic social skills that would allow for natural communication. We believe automatic personality recognition will provide computers with an essential social notion, improving the quality of services, such as in intelligent tutoring systems or information retrieval systems among many other uses. Over the past few years, researcher in social computing have shown that personality trait recognition from nonverbal behavior is feasible, yet, the accuracy rate never exceeds a certain level, due to a phenomenon called within-person variability. This means that individuals may vary their behavioral manifestation according to the situational context in which they are in. In this thesis, we propose a shift from the traditional personality trait theory, to an approach which incorporates the personality fluctuations. This new perspective defines personality as dynamic episodes, the so called personality states, which relate to situational factors. Based on this property, we define the notion of social situations and propose a fully data-driven approach based on the Topic Modeling theory. The active situational characteristics that emerge from the model are interpreted according to their interrelation to the personality states fluctuations. We also present an automatic framework based on topic modeling, which handles dynamic spatio-temporal patterns of behavior and aims to predict the semantic meaning of the situational patterns, in meaningful situations, without the need of expert annotators.

People commonly attribute more uniquely human characteristics to their in-group than to out-groups but do not differentially attribute the characteristics that we share with other animals. This process is called out-group de/infra-humanization. Up to now it has been conceptualized mainly as a motivated phenomenon serving many intergroup functions. Research so far has not investigated the possibility that animalistic de/infra-humanization might also have cognitive determinants. My research sought to fill this gap in the literature by suggesting that out-group infra-humanization can be conceived as an illusory correlation that people create between groups which represent (at least in one’s own experience) the majority and humanness, which is a quality unique to and shared by all human beings. Recent research on illusory correlation explains this phenomenon in terms of Kruschke’s (1996, 2001, 2003) Attention Theory of category learning (AT). AT proposes that, when learning about multiple groups, the features of the majority group are learned earlier than the features of the minority group. Once the features of the majority group are learned, attention is shifted to learn about the minority group. Impressions of the second-learned group form around those features that most clearly differentiate it from the first-learned group. Since the in-group often has a majority status and being uniquely human is a generally shared attribute, this model would suggest that we tend to associate humanness with the in-group. In turn, the association of humanness with the second-learned group (out-group) would be inhibited. Moreover, the out-group is more likely to be associated with the less common comparative attribute (i.e., non-uniquely human), strengthening out-group infra-humanization. Three experiments support this explanation of the infra-humanization effect as a result of associating humanity with the in-group. In Studies 1 and 2, we investigated whether out-group infra-humanization can result from the way people perceive and process information in case of illusory correlation where no real differences exist between the majority and minority groups. In Study 3, we investigated whether group identification modulates the basic illusory correlation effect. Implications for de/infra-humanization, illusory correlation, and stereotype formation are discussed.

In psicologia sociale, e in particolare negli studi sulle relazioni intime e le relazioni all’interno del gruppo d’appartenenza, è stato osservato come le persone con cui abbiamo dei legami (e.g., partner, amici, membri del nostro gruppo) siano incluse nella rappresentazione del sé. Nella presente tesi mi sono interessata al ruolo del corpo, e in particolare alla sincronia interpersonale (i.e., la messa in atto di azioni sincrone, come nel caso di una marcia o una danza), nel suscitare questo senso di inclusione. Recentemente, alcuni studi hanno sottolineato i molteplici effetti sociali della sincronia, come il sentirsi parte di un’unità, i sentimenti di affiliazione e i comportamenti cooperativi. Quale sia il processo sottostante di questi effetti è però una questione che è stata raramente presa in considerazione. Facendo un parallelo tra gli studi sulle relazioni sociali in psicologia sociale e le ricerche di neuroscienze cognitive, che dimostrano come i confini della nostra rappresentazione corporea siano flessibili e frutto dall’integrazione di informazioni visive, tattili e propriocettive, ho avanzato l’ipotesi che l’integrazione multisensoriale possa essere una delle possibili spiegazioni degli effetti sociali della sincronia. Ispirandosi a questi studi sulla percezione corporea e all’”illusione della mano di gomma”, ai partecipanti veniva data una stimolazione tattile sul volto mentre guardavano un video dove una persona riceveva la stessa stimolazione in modo sincrono o asincrono. E’ noto che in queste illusioni multisensoriali, una stimolazione visuo-tattile sincrona (vs. asincrona) permetta l’inclusione nella rappresentazione del sé corporeo di oggetti esterni, che sia una mano finta o il viso di uno sconosciuto. I risultati di un primo studio (Capitolo 2) evidenziano come la sincronia (vs. asincronia) della stimolazione induca un’illusione di diventare la persona nel video e che questa alterazione del sé corporeo porti anche ad una inclusione dell'altro nel sé a livello concettuale (i.e., vicinanza, similarità, piacevolezza e conformismo. Questo risultato è stato replicati negli studi successivi. Evidenze mediazionali (Capitolo 2) e uno studio di controllo (Capitolo 3) sottolineano come sia l’illusione corporea di diventare l’altro ad essere responsabile degli effetti sociali trovati. E’ stato inoltre evidenziato come, oltre a influenzare la percezione dell’altro, una stimolazione multisensoriale sincrona (vs. asincrona) abbia un effetto anche sulla valutazione del sé. Mettendo in parallelo la reazione sulla percezione di sé con gli studi sul confronto sociale nelle relazioni importanti è stato possibile sottolineare come questo tipo di stimolazione multisensoriale, quando sincrona (vs. asincrona), non induca solo una semplice assimilazione percettiva ma un legame di tipo relazionale (Capitolo 4). Inoltre, l’effetto di inclusione dell’altro creato dalla sincronia è generalizzabile anche a livello intergruppi. Riprendendo il classico paradigma della mano di gomma e manipolando l’appartenenza etnica (mano bianca vs. nera) o l’età (mano di un giovane vs. anziano) della mano finta è stato possibile valutare da una parte l’effetto della categorizzazione sociale sull’illusione e, dall’altra, l’effetto della manipolazione sia sulla percezione di un membro dell’in-group e dell’out-group, oltre che dei loro gruppi di appartenenza (Capitolo 5). Un ultimo studio (Capitolo 6) si colloca nel dibattito tra il peso dei fattori sensoriali bottom-up (i.e., sincronia) e delle conoscenze pregresse sul corpo, o top-down (e.g., legame funzionale tra gli stimoli) nelle illusioni multisensoriali (e.g., mano di gomma). Nell’insieme questi studi mostrano come l’integrazione multisensoriale giochi un ruolo importante nel senso di unità e fusione con l’altro creato dalla sincronia e sottolineano inoltre come le nostre relazioni sociali siano parzialmente radicate nella nostra rappresentazione corporea.

Le etichette denigratorie (e.g., frocio, negro) sono termini che veicolano un atteggiamento negativo nei confronti del gruppo o persona a cui si riferiscono (Simon & Greenberg, 1996) e, per questo, si differenziano dalle etichette categoriali (e.g., gay, Afro-Americano) le quali si limitano a denominare in modo neutro una categoria o gruppo. Sino ad oggi sono state indagate le conseguenze di tipo valutativo (i.e. atteggiamento) e descrittivo (i.e. attivazione dello stereotipo) dell’esposizione alle etichette denigratorie. In particolare, da alcuni studi è emerso che, quando le persone sono esposte a termini denigratori (vs. categoriali), esse tendono a valutare la persona oggetto dell’offesa in modo maggiormente negativo (Greenberg et al., 1985; Kirkland et al., 1987; Galdon et al. 2009) e ad attivare associazioni meno positive nei confronti del gruppo (Carnaghi & Maass, 2007). La presente tesi si propone di investigare le conseguenze delle etichette denigratorie su coloro che vi sono esposti in modo involontario, e analizzare se l’esposizione a questa tipologie di linguaggio denigratorio contribuisce alla persistenza del pregiudizio. Il tipo di reazione ad etichette denigratorie dipende dalla prospettiva assunta da coloro che sono esposti a questi termini. Da un lato troviamo coloro che sono spettatori in quanto non appartengono al gruppo denigrato. Dall’altro vi sono coloro che sono i destinatari dell’offesa essendo parte del gruppo a cui le etichette si riferiscono. Nella presente ricerca sono state analizzate le reazioni di spettatori eterosessuali ad epiteti omofobi e gli effetti delle etichette sessiste sui destinatari, ossia le donne. Gli studi sugli epiteti omofobi hanno indagato due tipologie di reazione: il comportamento non verbale e la percezione di umanità del gruppo target. In particolare è stato esaminato il fenomeno della de umanizzazione animalistica in riferimento al fenomeno dell’infra-umanizzazione, che può essere descritto come la tendenza a percepire il proprio gruppo di appartenenza (in-group) come più umano rispetto ad un gruppo esterno (out-group; Leyens et al., 2001). In 2 studi viene mostrato come gli epiteti omofobi (e.g., frocio) determinavano una negazione di umanità al gruppo degli omosessuali, che non emergeva quando i partecipanti erano esposti ad una etichetta di tipo categoriale (e.g. gay) o ad un insulto generico non specifico per gli omosessuali (e.g., coglione). Tale effetto di deumanizzazione degli omosessuali emergeva sia in Italia che in Australia, provando l’indipendenza del processo in questione dal contesto linguistico e culturale di riferimento. Inoltre, gli epiteti omofobi determinavano anche delle conseguenze di tipo comportamentale. In particolare, è stato evidenziato che l’esposizione ad etichette omofobe aumentava la volontà dei partecipanti eterosessuali a mantenere una distanza fisica verso una persona omosessuale. Nel caso delle etichette sessiste sono state analizzate le conseguenze sui membri del gruppo a cui i termini erano riferiti, ovvero le donne. In una prima ricerca sono state esaminate due tipologie di etichette sessiste denominate etichette Sessiste Denigratorie (e.g., troia) e Sessiste Oggettivanti (e.g., gnocca), e come la loro accettabilità sociale variasse in diverse situazioni (e.g., relazione affettiva piuttosto che luogo di lavoro). I risultati evidenziarono che la valutazione e i giudizi di accettabilità variavano per le etichette – le sessiste denigratorie erano percepite come fortemente offensive e socialmente in accettate mentre le sessiste oggettivanti come meno offensive e più accettabili. Al tempo stesso il tipo di contesto e il genere della persona (uomo vs. donna) che utilizza l’etichetta sembrava influenzarne l’accettabilità dei termini. Le conseguenze di queste due tipologie di etichette sessiste sulle donne è stata indagata analizzando le risposte di sessismo. In questo caso si è fatto riferimento al costrutto di Sessismo Ambivalente (Glick & Fiske, 1996), che distingue due dimensioni relative ad una forma di ostilità e benevolenza nei confronti delle donne. I risultati di due studi supportano l’ipotesi che, seppur diverse per valenza, entrambe le etichette sessiste denigratorie e oggettivanti enfatizzano una visione della donna come subordinata e, in questo modo, inducono a maggiori livelli di sessismo ostile nei confronti dell’in-group. I due filoni di ricerca evidenziano come il linguaggio denigratorio omofobo e sessista abbiano delle conseguenze nella perpetuazione del pregiudizio. Nel caso degli spettatori, determinando risposte di distanza fisica e de umanizzazione del gruppo target. Nel caso dei destinatari, incrementando un atteggiamento ostile verso il proprio gruppo di appartenenza e accettando credenze a carattere pregiudiziale. Infine, sono stati considerati e discussi i limiti della ricerca, soprattutto relativamente ai processi sottostanti ai fenomeni evidenziati, le novità delle evidenze riscontrate e le implicazioni sociali delle etichette denigratorie.

The behaviour that we exhibit contributes to the message that is communicated to those that we are interacting with and can have an impact on how the message is conveyed and interpreted. Nonverbal behaviour is just as important to be aware of as well as what is being said, as the subtleties of behaviour can impact the outcome of interactions. Advancements in research technologies have allowed us the chance to investigate natural human behaviour is a variety of settings outside of the laboratory, however, some gaps in the understanding of behaviour exist. The aim of this thesis is to investigate communication and social interactions in a variety of settings, paying particular attention to the methods of data collection, specifically the use of wearable sensors, to investigate phenomenon from social psychology. The thesis aims to address three specific research questions; 1) if can we predict stress using a combination of nonverbal behavioural cues along with physiological measurements, 2) understand the factors affecting happiness and productivity in the workplace from features of communication taken from wearable sensors and 3) determine the stressors that can be characterised from communication patterns assessed through Call Detail Records and smartphone sensors. The studies presented here focus on the nonverbal aspects of communication that can be measured through wearable and sensing devices. In the three types of scenarios that are detailed in the different chapters, the interactions considered are face to face meetings in a one on one interaction, co-location within a defined space in an organisation and the communications of a widely dispersed community. The interactions are recorded by wearable devices such as the Affectiva Q sensor, the Sociometric Badge, and smartphones equipped with sensing capabilities in the form of the funf and P-OWL platforms for data recording, among other forms of data collection. Each of the studies included aspects of self reported assessments that were used as a ground truth measurement of affect: these were annotations of stress, self reports of fear of negative evaluation, self perception, positive and negative affect and stress, among others. The goal was to examine how to use digital traces of behavioural expressions to have a greater understanding of these interactions and how the way in which we interact with others has an impact on the individual. The work from this thesis adds to the existing literature on these various issues by addressing the research questions from a novel perspective. The studies found support for each of the research questions and by using a mixed methods approach and digital traces from wearable sensors gained insights into how communication impacted the individual, revealing the important aspects of communication and their effect on stress, productivity and well-being.

While cutting-edge research has shown how – from a neural and cognitive point of view – human beings are perceived and elaborated differently from objects, in social psychology different studies demonstrated that this human-object divide fades in several circumstances. Research in social psychology is continuing to advance the knowledge on dehumanization and objectification phenomenon in which human beings are perceived and elaborated more similar to an object and less like a human being. Recently, this has been demonstrated quite literally directly comparing human stimuli with a mind and perceptually similar mindless objects (Vaes et al., 2019, 2020). Such direct comparisons allow us to demonstrate how the well-documented human-object divide tends to fade during dehumanization and objectification phenomena. Presenting five research studies, this thesis aims not only at proving how de-mentalized human stimuli are cognitively perceived as object-like (Chapter 2 and 3), but also at showing how these phenomena are influencing more subtle, un-controlled behaviour processes that impact human social interactions (Chapter 4). Specifically, in Chapter 2, two similar EEG studies aimed at exploring the timeline of the mentalization process by adapting a paradigm in which the human-object divide is investigated. By manipulating both perceptual and contextual information, ingroup and outgroup human faces together with their identity-matched doll-like avatar faces were presented while registering participants’ neural correlates. Thanks to the direct comparison between mindless and mindful targets our goal was to unravel the time course of mentalization and its underlying processes. By adapting the same paradigm, in Chapter 3 we explored the process of sexual objectification and presented sexually objectified men and women with their gender-matched doll-like avatars. Our primary goal was to investigate how objectified men and women are perceptually and cognitive perceived by looking at a sample of gay men. By directly comparing mindless and mindful targets we wanted to understand whether sexual objectification might be target (i.e., always mainly directed towards women regardless of the perceivers sexual orientation) or agent specific (i.e., directed towards different targets depending on the perceivers sexual orientation). Moreover, we also wanted to explore what might drive heterosexual men and women and gay men to objectify others. Finally, the purpose of Chapter 4 was to investigate an implicit and unconscious consequence of sexual objectification. By presenting objectified and non-objectified women expressing happiness and anger we measured participants’ spontaneous mimicry responses. Our goal was to determine whether sexual objectification – a phenomenon in which women are considered as object-like – might influence such an uncontrolled and implicit human behaviour that affects normal social interactions.

Perception of moral violations and people’s misbehaviours are crucial elements that allow people to live in the society. The literature suggested that both explicit and implicit processes are involved in the moral cognition (Cameron et al., 2012). However still nowadays, the majority of the literature focused only on the explicit aspects of morality, while scarce attention was given to the study of implicit moral attitudes (Cameron et al., 2018). Furthermore, researchers on morality are currently attracting by the investigation of moral cognition in people with impairments in social cognition (e.g., people with autism spectrum disorder; ASD) who may process the moral violations differently compared neurotypical people (see e.g., Gallese, 2006), However, this line of research is at the beginning stage, and the use of implicit measures to understand the mechanisms underpinning the morality in autism (or in people with high autistic traits) have not yet been considered in previous studies. The present dissertation aimed to investigate important aspects of moral cognition that currently are still under-investigated in literature, offering a wider view on implicit aspects of morality in autism. Through six experiments, this work wanted to provide new empirical findings concerning the implicit mechanisms underpinning moral cognition in both neurotypical and autistic people without intellectual disability. Experiment 1 and 2 According to Moral Foundation Theory (Graham et al., 2013) specific emotions are associated to different types of moral violations. For instance, when people perceive that a victim is physically or emotionally harmed by someone else, they feel anger against the perpetrator. By contrast, people feel disgust when they perceive that someone ate inedible food or made blasphemous practices (Haidt et al., 1993). However, empirical finding that assessed the link between different types of moral violations and specific emotions showed mixed results. Indeed, it was suggested that other important factors might also modulate the relations between different moral violations and emotions (Atari et al., 2020; Kemper & Newheiser, 2018). Specifically, the benign violation hypothesis (McGraw & Warren, 2010) claimed that sometimes people could perceive moral violations as amusing, and this specific emotion seems elicited by specific contextual (e.g., psychological distance) as well as interpersonal factors (e.g., humor traits). However, previous studies never tested whether people perceive amusement in response to all types of moral violation, or whether amusement emerged only in response to specific norm violations (e.g., purity violations). Furthermore recently, Dempsey and colleagues (2020a) emphasized the importance to test the assumptions of Moral Foundation Theory in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Interviewing six autistic participants, the authors found that the participants endorsed all moral domains as morally relevant. However, the relations between emotional reaction and moral domains in autism have never been tested, as well as whether autistic people perceive moral violations as benign and amusing. In the first two experiments of this thesis, it was assessed the amusement reaction in response to different types of moral violations (purity vs. harm) and extending such investigation involving a group of autistic participants. Furthermore, the studies conducted so far on moral cognition has prevalently used explicit methodology. By contrast, in these experiments it was assessed the emotional reaction in response to different types of moral violations analysing the spontaneous facial expressions in neurotypical people (experiment 1), and the cardiac response of both typical and autistic individuals (experiment 2). The aim of these experiments was to investigate whether neurotypical people perceive specific types of moral violations as benign and amusing, and then whether autistic people expressed different emotions compared neurotypical people in response to different types of moral violations. Experiment 3, 4 and 5 As opposite of Moral Foundation Theory, the Dyadic Model claimed that a sine qua non for moral perception is the implicit activation of harm (Gray et al., 2012). In other words, always immorality automatically activates perceptions of harm regardless of someone is harmed (acts which involve physical and emotional damage; harm violations) or not (i.e., acts which involve impure and degradation behaviour; purity violations). Indeed, empirical evidence suggested that, during the reading of a scenario depicting a harmless moral violation in the domain of purity, people nevertheless implicitly infer that harm was involved. Across three experiments, we tested whether ostensibly harmless moral violations activated implicitly the harm concept. In all these three experiments the participants’ implicit attitude in response to moral violations was tested by using the affective misattribution paradigm (AMP; Payne et al., 2014), which is one of the most reliable methods to assess individual unconscious mental processes in psychology (Znanewitz et al., 2018). Specifically, Experiment 3 aimed to replicate previous findings which highlighted the implicit role of harm in response to harmless moral violations (Gray et al., 2014). Experiment 4 extended previous results with an investigation aimed to verify whether people with high autistic traits showed less implicit activation of harm in response to harmless scenarios than people with low autistic traits. Finally, Experiment 5 aimed to investigate whether autistic people (without intellectual disability) implicitly activated the harm concept in response to harmless scenarios as well as neurotypicals. Experiment 6 The majority of the studies which investigated the moral cognition in autism started to the premise that autistic people have a selective impairment in Theory of Mind (ToM; Moran et al., 2011), which is also a fundamental skill to understand the moral behaviours (e.g., Hamlin, 2015). However, the literature is far to show the role of Theory of Mind in the moral processing. Recently, it was suggested that ToM is a cognitive skill that involves both explicit and implicit processes (e.g., Southgate et al., 2007). The born of new implicit measures to assess the ToM brought an initial enthusiasm in this area of study. For instance, studies on clinical psychology, using both explicit and implicit ToM measures in order to understand selective ToM difficulties by autistic individuals without intellectual disability showed that, although this population presented high performance to explicit ToM tasks, they showed lower performance in the newer implicit ToM tasks compared to neurotypical participants (e.g., Schuwerk et al., 2015; Senju et al., 2009). Late unfortunately, these interesting results were put into question by other studies, which argued against the reliability of these new implicit measures (Kulke et al., 2018b). Moreover, another important gap in implicit ToM literature was that, while previous models in developmental psychology and psychopathology have suggested a link between attachment and the development of ToM, the relationship between attachment and implicit ToM has been so far neglected. In this experiment, we assessed both implicit and explicit mental state attribution, by means of a new implicit ToM task, as well as some attachment dimensions, comparing a group of autistic participants, without intellectual disability, and a control group. Specifically, in this experiment it was investigated participants’ spontaneous anticipatory look in response to false beliefs tasks using the eye-tracking methodology (one of the most used implicit ToM paradigms in literature). This study aimed to investigate the Theory of Mind (ToM) at both explicit and implicit level (Southgate et al., 2007), investigating possible differences between neurotypical individuals and autistic people. Furthermore, in the same study it was also investigated the link between the participants’ attachment and the explicit and implicit ToM skills. Moral cognition is a complex object of study that should be investigated with a multi-dimensional approach. In the experiments described in this thesis it was proposed a combined methodology that allowed to gather both explicit and implicit cognitive and emotional mechanisms that stay at the root of the moral judgment. Thanks to this approach it was found that deliberate and involuntary processes did not present convergent responses in the moral cognition of participants. Indeed, self-reported emotions seem to show divergent responses compared to the spontaneous facial expressions and the cardiac response to moral violations. These results support extant literature that raises concerns about the intuitionist assumptions of the moral cognition based on the assessment of only explicit responses of participants (e.g., Gutierrez & Giner-Sorolla, 2007; Nosek, 2007). Furthermore, this thesis highlighted the importance of studying the moral cognition in people affected by the autism spectrum disorder. Despite the social impairments that this neurodevelopmental disorder presents, we found that autistic people with cognitive level in average with the typical population, did not show any differences compared to the control group in both explicit and implicit mechanisms of moral cognition. These interesting findings may bring important theoretical reflections in moral and clinical psychology.

La ricerca indaga due aree delle cognizione sociale: la Teoria della Mente (ToM) e la valutazione sociale. Nella prima parte è stato indagato quando e come emerge il ragionamento psicologico, inteso come l’abilità di inferire gli stati mentali altrui. Nel primo studio gli esperimenti valutano la capacità negli infanti di attribuire le false credenze attraverso lo sguardo anticipatorio (misure implicite) e anche negli adulti, attraverso compiti verbali (misure esplicite). I risultati hanno rivelato nei bambini di 17 mesi il possesso di un implicita TOM e danno quindi sostegno alle teorie modulari che prevedono una precoce attivazione di capacità metarappresentazionali. Nel secondo studio, sono stati condotti due esperimenti e confrontate due popolazioni di infanti, udenti e sordi. I risultati hanno mostrato il ruolo della precoce esperienza comunicativa, verbale o dei segni, sullo sviluppo della ToM. Un terzo studio condotto sui bambini prescolari bilingui e monolingui, ha rivelato migliori abilità di ragionamento inferenziale e pragmatico nei bambini bilingui. Il quarto studio ha indagato il substrato neurale, sottostante la ToM, per verificare l’ipotesi modulare, analizzando le prestazioni a compiti di ToM di pazienti neurologici, con lesione prevalentemente focale nella corteccia prefrontale, e controllando la co-azione di altri processi cognitivi, come le funzioni esecutive e l’intelligenza generale. I risultati hanno confermato l’ipotesi modulare e del dominio specifico della Teoria della Mente, esaminando una delle regioni neurali, ritenuta specializzata nelle rappresentazione degli stati mentali altrui: la corteccia prefrontale ventromediale. Nella seconda parte del lavoro è stata studiata la valutazione sociale delle azioni distributive nella prima infanzia. Sono stati condotti due studi che hanno indagato le inferenze delle disposizioni altrui, anche in seguito a giudizi su comportamenti distributivi operati da diversi agenti. I risultati hanno rivelato nei bambini di 16 mesi la capacità di inferire le disposizioni degli agenti, quando queste sono successive ad un processo di valutazione sociale dei comportamenti altrui. Le conclusioni hanno implicazioni teoriche che sostengono le nuove proposte sull’origine evolutiva del senso morale.