How does culture influence the ways in which individuals reflect upon their knowledge of others’ mental states? We addressed this question in a two‐study cross‐cultural investigation examining perceptions of mental state access in the United States and Japan. Study 1 (n = 100) revealed that American participants reported greater mental state access than did Japanese participants. Study 2 (n = 146) showed that both Americans and Japanese perceived greater access to the mental states of a close friend relative to a casual friend and that the observed cultural differences in perceived mental state access to a close friend’s mental states were mediated by how much access was considered appropriate. Overall, the results indicate that culturally variable norms specifying appropriate levels of mental state access play an important role in how individuals estimate their knowledge of other people’s minds in close relationships.

中文翻译：

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认识心灵：进入精神状态的文化和观念

文化如何影响个人反思自己对他人心理状态知识的方式？我们在一项跨文化的两项研究中解决了这个问题，该研究考察了美国和日本对精神状态获取的看法。研究1（n  = 100）显示，与日本人相比，美国人的精神状态获得了更大的报道。研究2（n = 146）表明，美国人和日本人都认为与亲密朋友相比，密友的精神状态获得了更大的访问权，并且观察到的对亲密朋友的精神状态的感知到的文化差异是由认为有多少通行能力所介导的适当。总体而言，结果表明，文化变量规范规定了适当的心理状态访问水平，在个体如何估计自己在亲密关系中对他人思想的了解方面发挥着重要作用。