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Societal inferences from the physical world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2025

Rodney Tompkins Open the ORCID record for Rodney Tompkins [Opens in a new window] ,
Julian Jara-Ettinger Open the ORCID record for Julian Jara-Ettinger [Opens in a new window]  and
Adena Schachner Open the ORCID record for Adena Schachner [Opens in a new window]
Rodney Tompkins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA rtompkins@ucsd.edu adschachner@ucsd.edu https://madlab.ucsd.edu/
Julian Jara-Ettinger
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA julian.jara-ettinger@yale.edu https://compdevlab.yale.edu/ Wu-Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
Adena Schachner*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA rtompkins@ucsd.edu adschachner@ucsd.edu https://madlab.ucsd.edu/
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Moffett points to humans' use of physical markers to signal group identity as crucial to human society. We characterize the developmental and cognitive bases of this capacity, arguing that it is part of an early-emerging, intuitive socio-physical interface which allows the inanimate world to encode rich social meaning about individuals' identities, and the values of the society as a whole.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e73
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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