Keeping track of what others believe is a central part of human social cognition. However, the social relevance of those beliefs can vary a great deal. Some belief attributions mostly tell us about what a person is likely to do next. Other belief attributions tell us more about a person's social identity. In this paper, I argue that we cope with this challenge by employing two distinct concepts of belief in our everyday social interactions. The epistemic concept of belief is primarily used to keep track of what other people take to be true, and this informs how we predict and interpret their behaviors. The symbolic concept of belief, in contrast, is primarily used as a means of signaling one's social identity to other members of one's community. In turn, community members closely monitor each other's symbolic beliefs as a means of enforcing social norms.

中文翻译：

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社会认知的象征性信仰

跟踪他人的看法是人类社会认知的核心部分。然而，这些信念的社会相关性可能有很大差异。一些信念归因主要告诉我们一个人接下来可能会做什么。其他信仰归因可以告诉我们更多关于一个人的社会身份的信息。在本文中，我认为我们通过在日常社交互动中采用两种不同的信仰概念来应对这一挑战。信念的认知概念主要用于跟踪其他人认为是真实的事情，这告诉我们如何预测和解释他们的行为。相比之下，信仰的象征性概念主要用作向社区其他成员表明一个人的社会身份的手段。反过来，社区成员也密切关注彼此的象征性信仰，以此作为执行社会规范的一种手段。