Explain why research on Samoan and Vanuatu children of the South Pacific showed delayed development in theory of mind.

Research with Samoan and Vanuatu children of the South Pacific has confirmed the relevance of culture on theory of mind. Samoan children age 3-14 years showed delayed development in theory of mind and a prolonged transition to succeeding on theory of mind tasks relative to Western samples. Samoan and Vanuatu children's slow progression on theory of mind tasks is consistent with the Pacific Island doctrine of opacity of mind. Samoan and Vanuatu cultures deemphasize internal mental states as explanations for behavior. Samoan and Vanuatu children, therefore, are not exposed to discussions about the mind. They get little experience considering other people's thoughts. Research with English-speaking Western samples has shown that conversations about people's thoughts predicts children's understanding of false beliefs. Therefore, Samoan and Vanuatu children's delayed success on false belief tasks is likely a result of their culture's views. In support of this idea is a study of Pacific families living in New Zealand, in which mothers with a stronger Pacific cultural identity referred to beliefs less often when talking to their children than mothers whose Pacific identities were weaker. Samoan and Vanuatu children may be relatively slow to attribute false beliefs because they take longer to recognize that such beliefs exist relative to cultures where minds are less opaque. Interestingly, however, Vanuatu children's performance varied by context. Vanuatu children who lived in towns showed more advanced performance than those who lived in rural settings, suggesting that the social contexts within a given cultural setting also influence how children come to understand the nature of people's thoughts.