XToM: Exploring the Multilingual Theory of Mind for Large Language Models

Theory of Mind (ToM)-the ability to infer mental states in others-is pivotal for human social cognition. Existing evaluations of ToM in LLMs are largely limited to English, neglecting the linguistic diversity that shapes human cognition. This limitation raises a critical question: can LLMs exhibit Multilingual Theory of Mind-the capacity to reason about mental states across diverse linguistic contexts? To address this gap, we present XToM, a rigorously validated multilingual benchmark that evaluates ToM across five languages and incorporates diverse, contextually rich task scenarios. Using XToM, we systematically evaluate LLMs (e.g., DeepSeek R1), revealing a pronounced dissonance: while models excel in multilingual language understanding, their ToM performance varies across languages. Our findings expose limitations in LLMs' ability to replicate human-like mentalizing across linguistic contexts 1 . * Equal contribution. 1 Code and data are available at https://github.com/ HKUST-KnowComp/XToM . …… … XToMi 1 Personne 1 est entrée dans la chambre principale. 2 Personne 2 est entrée dans la chambre principale. 3 L'oignon est dans la bouteille. 4 Personne 2 est sortie de la chambre principale. 5 Personne 1 a déplacé l'oignon dans le garde-manger. Où Personne 2 cherchera-t-elle l'oignon ? A) Garde-manger B) Bouteille FR XToMi 1 人物1进入主卧室。 2 人物2进入主卧室。 3 洋葱在瓶子里。 4 人物2离开主卧室。 5 人物1将洋葱移到储藏室。 人物2会去哪里找洋葱？ A) 储藏室 B) 瓶子 ZH XToMi -BeliefQ 1 Person 1 entered the master bedroom. 2 Person 2 entered the master bedroom. 3 The onion is in the bottle. 4 Person 2 exited the master bedroom. 5 Person 1 moved the onion to the pantry. Where will Person 2 look for the onion? A) Pantry B) Bottle EN …… … XToMi 1 Personne 1 est entrée dans la chambre principale. 2 Personne 2 est entrée dans la chambre principale. 3 L'oignon est dans la bouteille. 4 Personne 2 est sortie de la chambre principale. 5 Personne 1 a déplacé l'oignon dans le garde-manger. Où Personne 2 cherchera-t-elle l'oignon ? A) Garde-manger B) Bouteille FR XToMi 1 人物1进入主卧室。 2 人物2进入主卧室。 3 洋葱在瓶子里。 4 人物2离开主卧室。 5 人物1将洋葱移到储藏室。 人物2会去哪里找洋葱？? A) 储藏室 B) 瓶子 ZH EN XToMi -RealityQ 1 Person 1 entered the master bedroom. 2 Person 2 entered the master bedroom. 3 The onion is in the bottle. 4 Person 2 exited the master bedroom. 5 Person 1 moved the onion to the pantry.