There are several theories that attempt to explain the social deficits in autismwithout recourse to a deficit in mentalizing or without postulating the absence ofa specialized theory-of-mind mechanism. An earlier suggestion is that primarydeficit in autism is one of executive functioning (Hughes et al., 1994; Ozonoffet al., 1991; Russell, 1997). For example, on false belief tasks the incorrect answermight be chosen because of a failure to suppress the strongly activated “physicalreality” alternative.