Purpose-Based Thinking Affects Belief in the Existence of Everyday Objects

When we reason about the physical world, we don't just think about physical facts. For example, in judging why an object exists, or belongs to a particular category, we often appeal to intentions, functions, and purpose (e.g., “knives exist for cutting”). Such “teleological” thinking is common, but intuitively it has limits: For example, whether an object exists appears to depend only on the objective physical state of the world. In contrast, we present evidence that intentions can influence people's judgments of whether an everyday object exists. Participants read stories about an object being disassembled. Controlling for the physical status of the object, people's judgments about whether the object existed were sensitive to the purpose guiding the disassembly. These results serve as a case study in the psychological power of intentions: Apparently straightforward judgments about the physical world can be shaped by the state of the mental-world.