If successful, the resulting deflationary explanations would in each case show how findings observed in paradigms that seem to tap specifically social perception can in fact be brought about directly by domain-general processes – i.e. bypassing any need for dedicated social-perceptual to identify others’ mental states. In the following, we explicate and evaluate this deflationary approach. Focusing on two separate areas of research to which the approach has been applied. we argue that the deflationary approach has been successful in illuminating how functionally specific processes for social perception can be subserved at least in part by domain-general processes, but that its potential to contribute to ongoing research has been limited by an artificial dichotomy between domain-general and domain-specific processes. As an alternative to this contrastive conception of the relationship between domain-general and domain-specific processes, we propose a complementary conception: the identification of domain-general processes that are engaged in instances of social perception can play a positive, structuring role by adding additional constraints to be accounted for in modelling the domain-specific processes that are also involved in such instances.