Literacy linked to advanced social reasoning in adults

A study published in PLoS One suggests that literacy significantly influences an adult's ability to reason about the beliefs of others, a cognitive process known as Theory of Mind.

Researchers conducted a study involving 76 Turkish-speaking women to compare literate and illiterate individuals using a second-order false-belief task. This advanced test requires participants to reason about what one person thinks another person believes. The results showed that literate adults achieved approximately 80% correct answers, whereas illiterate participants scored only about 20%.

The study identified reading fluency as the strongest explanatory factor for these results. While intelligence and impulse control were considered, they did not provide additional predictive power once reading fluency was accounted for. The findings indicate that literacy and the associated educational pathways may shape advanced social reasoning in ways that extend beyond simple word decoding.