The use of one's own experience as a model to make inferences about the experiences of others is theorized to be the means by which a variety of introspectively based social strategies developed for both competing and cooperating with one another (e.g. gratitude, grudging, sympathy, empathy, deception, pretending and sorrow). The proposition that this ability is a byproduct of self-awareness is developed in some detail and the predictions which follow from this model of social intelligence are considered in light of the evidence.