Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the ability of an individual to make inferencesabout what others may be thinking or feeling and to predict what they may doin a given situation based on those inferences. Discussions of ToM focus almostexclusively on inferred cognitive structures and processes and shed little lighton the actual behaviors involved. In this article, I (a) selectively overview theliterature on ToM, (b) suggest that the behavioral relations referred to by ToMscholars can be described and explained parsimoniously within the theoreticalframework of behavior analysis, (c) argue that the verbal behaviors that definemost ToM tasks are acquired as a function of the language environment of theyoung child, and (d) point out that B. F. Skinner (1945) proposed what amountsto a ToM more than 60 years ago.In the last chapter of The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins (1976) introducedthe term meme to refer to a unit of cultural replication analogous to thebiological unit of replication—the gene. Examples of memes include tunes,ideas, and catchphrases. According to Dawkins, “Just as genes propagatethemselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperm or eggs,so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain tobrain via a process, which in the broad sense can be called imitation” (p. 206).Although some may quarrel with Dawkins’ understanding of imitation, theterm meme has attained a certain level of descriptive currency.1I mention memes because an excellent example of a meme is theconstruct of “theory of mind.” Salzinger (2006) recently wrote, “‘Times theyare a-changin’,’ as Bob Dylan succinctly put it. . . . When you enter theory ofmind in PsycINFO, it returns 2,176 entries—books, book chapters, and journalarticles. Not only that, its frequency of use is such that it has been awardedan acronym, namely, ToM.” Since the term theory of mind was first used by1 Describing ToM as a meme implies that it confers some favorable advantage on those whotalk about it. Understanding the favorable advantage, however, means understanding the socialand professional contingencies responsible for individuals using the term and studying whateverbehaviors are said to reflect it. Thus, an ontogenetic-selection analogy based on establishedprinciples of learning better explains the popularity of a term than a phylogenetic-selectionanalogy does.The author is grateful to Matthew P. Normand and Julie A. Riggott, but especially to Edward K.Morris, for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to [email protected].