Abstract:
Dualism has a terrible reputation in cognitive science, and for good reason: the tacit (1) belief that the mind is distinct from the body wreaks havoc on reasoning and distorts our understanding of who we are, with serious consequences to laypeople and scholars alike. In particular, Dualism demonstrably promotes false intuitions about innateness and consciousness. The innateness wars (2) and the hard problem of consciousness (3) could well be among its casualties.
Notwithstanding its many tolls, however, Dualism might be natural and adaptive. I will show that Dualism likely arises from the tension between the two innate systems of core knowledge that guide reasoning about objects and the minds of others (4);(5). But the mind delusion could play a critical adaptive role in affective processing; its demonstrable role in psychopathology in gender dysphoria (6) and self-injury (7)hints at this possibility.
At a broader level, these results show how the perceptual systems of core knowledge scaffold our self-understanding with broad implications for cognition, affective processing, consciousness, and psychopathology. (8)
Readings:
1. Berent, A. Sansiveri, Are you a closet Dualist? Evidence from Brief Implicit Association Task. Open Mind 9, 864884 (2025).
2. Berent, Can we get human nature right? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 118, 1 (2021).
3. Berent, The hard problem of consciousness arises from human psychology. Open Mind: Discoveries in Cognitive Science 7, 564587 (2023).
4. Berent, R. Theodore, E. Valencia, Autism attenuates the perception of the mind-body divide. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119, e2211628119-e2211628119 (2022).
5. Berent, The illusion of the mindbody divide is attenuated in males. Scientific Reports 13, 6653 (2023).
6. Berent, J. M. Hooley, The gender-sex incongruence is partly a mindbody incongruence.Scientific reports 15, 9185-9113 (2025).
7. Berent, C. Boccagno, J. M. Hooley (2025) Non-suicidal self harm is linked to perceptions of the mind-body divide. (Manuscript submitted for publication).
8. Berent, The mind delusion: why it arises and how we build the conscious self (Oxford University Press, New York, in press).
Readings - (if/when available):
1. Berent, A. Sansiveri, Are you a closet Dualist? Evidence from Brief Implicit Association Task. Open Mind 9, 864884 (2025). 2. Berent, Can we get human nature right? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 118, 1 (2021). 3. Berent, The hard problem of consciousness arises from human psychology. Open Mind: Discoveries in Cognitive Science 7, 564587 (2023).
4. Berent, R. Theodore, E. Valencia, Autism attenuates the perception of the mind-body divide. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119, e2211628119-e2211628119 (2022). 5. Berent, The illusion of the mindbody divide is attenuated in males. Scientific Reports 13, 6653 (2023). 6. Berent, J. M. Hooley, The gender-sex incongruence is partly a mindbody incongruence.Scientific reports 15, 9185-9113 (2025).
7. Berent, C. Boccagno, J. M. Hooley (2025) Non-suicidal self harm is linked to perceptions of the mind-body divide. (Manuscript submitted for publication).
8. Berent, The mind delusion: why it arises and how we build the conscious self (Oxford University Press, New York, in pr
Bio: Dr. Iris Berent
Iris Berent is a Professor of Psychology and the director of the Language & Mind Lab at Northeastern University. Her work explores human nature and how it limits our ability to grasp who we are. Her case studies range from formal phonology to intuitive psychology, consciousness, and clinical psychology. Berents previous book, The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature (Oxford University Press, 2020) was featured in the list of Outstanding Academic Titles for 2021 by CHOICE; her upcoming book The Mind Delusion: Why It Arises and How It Shapes the Conscious Self will appear in 2017 (Oxford University Press).