Several studies have highlighted a relationship between attachment and theory of mind (ToM) in childhood and in clinical populations. However, little is known about the link between attachment and ToM in the general adult population. The aim of this study was, therefore, to explore how differences in attachment styles influence ToM skills in a nonclinical population of young adults. 69 young adults performed the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test, Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition test (MASC), and an adult attachment Q-sort questionnaire. Findings revealed that dimensions of avoidant and ambivalent attachment were, respectively, related to undermentalizing and overmentalizing tendencies. Insecure participants performed significantly more poorly than secure ones on the MASC. More specifically, participants with an avoidant attachment style made significantly more responses classified as undermentalizing than those with a secure attachment style. A statistical trend was observed for the MASC no-ToM score (answer with complete lack of ToM or literal understanding), with lower scores for the insecure ambivalent group than for the secure group. These results suggest that the individuals with avoidant insecure attachment are more likely to under-attribute mental states to others, while those with ambivalent insecure attachment tend not to make attributions when the situation requires it. Implications for future research are discussed.

几项研究强调了儿童和临床人群中依恋与心理理论 (ToM) 之间的关系。然而，对于一般成年人中依恋与 ToM 之间的联系知之甚少。因此，本研究的目的是探索依恋风格的差异如何影响非临床年轻人群的 ToM 技能。69 名年轻人进行了眼中读心测试、社会认知评估电影测试 (MASC) 和成人依恋 Q 分类问卷。研究结果表明，回避依恋和矛盾依恋的维度分别与低心理化和高心理化倾向有关。不安全的参与者在 MASC 上的表现明显低于安全参与者。进一步来说，比那些有安全依恋风格的人低调。观察到 MASC 无 ToM 分数（完全缺乏 ToM 或字面理解的答案）的统计趋势，不安全的矛盾组的分数低于安全组的分数。这些结果表明，具有回避型不安全依恋的人更容易将精神状态归因于他人，而具有矛盾不安全依恋的人往往不会在情况需要时做出归因。讨论了对未来研究的影响。