Why Isn't Telepathy/Mind-Reading Used In DB's Fights?

[theherodjl]

Roshi demonstrated far earlier in the series that he can mentally look inside of a person's head and see their thoughts & memories up to a recent period, an ability that could definitely be used to detect what an opponent is currently thinking and what kind of attacks that they have learned. So...why don't they use this ability to do just that? We know that both Goku and Vegeta(and others) have demonstrated psionic abilities in the past thus it is not a problem of them simply being unable to perform mind-reading, the conclusion must then be that they are choosing not to use their psionic abilities this way. But why, though?"
Do DB characters value honorable tactics and the thrill of the fight that much to not want to look into the minds of their enemies in order to end fights as quickly and with as less collateral damage as possible?

[SupremeKai25]

Meta reason: Because then the story would be boring. It would basically remove any tension or surprise. What's stopping the protagonists from reading Black's mind and discovering that he is Zamasu and he is working on his own Super Saiyan transformation? What's stopping Goku from reading Caulifla's mind and discovering that she intends to fuse with Kale? What's stopping Gohan from reading the mind of the U3's guys and discovering they want to fuse into Anilaza?

In-universe reason (and this is pure headcanon, as in I don't know if these techniques actually exist): Well, since in Super we're dealing with uber powerful people (like, some of these characters are universe busters), maybe they can like protect their minds or something from any intrusion. Zamasu and the Kais in general probably developed a resistance to Telepathy since they are experienced with that technique, Jiren meditates a lot so he probably knows how to block people trying to read his mind, and so on.

[Simere]

What mindreading/psionic ability from Vegeta are you talking about?

[JulieYBM]

Gokuu only seemed able to do it because he did it on friends who didn't have their guard up around him. I imagine it's the same for others, especially in the middle of combat.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Every time we've seen it used it seems to take at least a few seconds of focus and concentration.

Try that in the middle of a battle and you'd get punched in the face before you could read anyone's mind.

[DragonBallFoodie]

The 2012 TMNT cartoon featured a telepath who was able to match the Turtles by reading their thoughts, but was defeated when they expanded their training to fight on instinct.

I think a similar principle is in effect. The best warriors don't need to think but just act on their body's reflex.

[emperior]

It seems like reading minds takes some time. Even if it took 1 second by the 21st Budokai Tenkaichi Krillin and Kame Sennin were already doing moves in fractions of a second, so it was never a suitable choice in fight - not when characters are this fast.

It also does not seem like they can read the minds of someone either stronger or on-guard. Kaioshin seemed to be the only one capable of doing so, but we have no idea how his mind-reading works.

Anyways, it seems like such an unpractical thing to use in any battle and it could be countered by the opponent thinking of doing a move and then do another one.

[Melee_Sovereign]

It seems like reading minds takes some time. Even if it took 1 second by the 21st Budokai Tenkaichi Krillin and Kame Sennin were already doing moves in fractions of a second, so it was never a suitable choice in fight - not when characters are this fast.

That's what I was thinking. It's probably not feasible in the heat of battle.

Also, I'm not entirely sure they can just probe people's mind without the other person being a willing participant (or without physical contact with the top of their head). Telepathy in Dragon Ball is mainly used for mutual communication.