Mindreading and Dispositional Inference: MIM Revised and Extended

In response to the very insightful commentaries in this issue, I revised the multiple inference model (MIM) in two significant respects. First, I gave greater attention to the limits of mindreading, clarifying circumstances when perceivers merely infer traits within a target person. Second, and of greater importance, I more clearly specified the role of automaticity within the model, suggesting that much processing occurs in parallel. Rather than following a rigid sequence, inferences about situations, intentionality, mindreading, and traits can occur either intuitively or can occur in the context of analytic thought.