Sty in the Mind’s Eye: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Nomological Network and Internal Consistency of the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test

Abstract

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) is the most popular adult measure of individual differences in theory of mind. We present a meta-analytic investigation of the test’s psychometric properties ( k = 119 effect sizes, 61 studies, ntotal = 8,611 persons). Using random effects models, we found the internal consistency of the test was acceptable (α = .73). However, the RMET was more strongly related with emotion perception ( r = .33, ρ = .48) relative to alternative theory of mind measures ( r = .29, ρ = .39), and weakly to moderately related with vocabulary ( r = .25, ρ = .32), cognitive empathy ( r = .14, ρ = .20), and affective empathy ( r = .13, ρ = .19). Overall, we conclude that the RMET operates rather as emotion perception measure than as theory of mind measure, challenging the interpretation of RMET results.