[2601.16853] Reasoning Promotes Robustness in Theory of Mind Tasks

We just released a new paper benchmarking reasoning models (CoT as well as actual reasoning models) on Theory of Mind tests. These tests originally developed for human test persons, tests whether the person/models behaves as if it can understand mental states (intentions, emotions etc) (with our emphasis on as-if).

Reasoning models perform well on these tasks, what does this say? That these tests are not always valid, that these models have improved ToM abilities compare to non-reasoning models, or is there something else at play?

Our experiments suggest that the observed gains are more plausibly attributed to increased robustness in finding the correct solution, rather than to fundamentally new forms of ToM reasoning. The LLM ToM debate is riddles with strong claims so we also recognize there is much more to this debate, and the state of current research and debate is still somewhat speculative.

Then again, this is Reddit, what does the ML/AI hive mind here think?