Theory of Whose Mind? Exposing the Shortcomings of One of HRI’s Core Concepts

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Elmadagli, C. & Renoux, J. (2026). Theory of Whose Mind? Exposing the Shortcomings of One of HRI’s Core Concepts. Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 1369-1377. https://doi.org/10.1145/3757279.3788818

Publication date: 10 Mar 2026 Added to AutiHub: 28 Sep 2026 Type: Other Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)

Abstract

The concept of Theory of Mind (ToM) is central to many social robotic studies. It may be invoked during the design of social robots as a way to improve collaboration or create a form of "social intelligence". It is also considered as an established fact and never put in question. However, many scholars have analysed the concept of ToM from a critical perspective and argued that it is, in fact, a theory with significant shortcomings, that rests on neuronormative and neuroprivileged grounds.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 28 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
89
With a DOI
59
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
30
5 / 89 (5.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 89 (4.5%)
References with detected author names
85 / 89 (95.5%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
29
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
204
From DOI or external metadata
204
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
23 / 204 (11.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 181 / 204 (88.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
5 / 204 (2.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 5 / 23 (21.7%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 5 / 191 (2.6%).
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