Interaction theory is an approach to questions about social cognition, or how one understands other people, that focuses on bodily behaviours and environmental contexts rather than on mental processes. Interactional Theory argues against two other contemporary approaches to social cognition (or what is sometimes called ‘theory of mind’), namely theory theory and simulation theory. For Theory theory and Simulation Theory, the primary way of understanding others is by means of ‘mind reading’ or ‘mentalising’ – processes that depend on either theoretical inference from folk psychology, or simulation. In contrast, for Interactional Theory, the minds of others are understood primarily through our embodied interactive relations. Interactional Theory draws on interdisciplinary studies and appeals to evidence developed in developmental psychology, phenomenology (philosophy), and neuroscience.