Taking Perspective in Communication:Exploring What it Takes to Change Perspectives

An integral part of our social life is our propensityand ability to deduce what other people know, believe, feel or desire. This perspective-takingshould help us to adjust our communication accordingly. Taking another person’sperspective in communication, however, is not that easy to achieve. In fact,when we converse with others, we often do not acknowledge that they might payattention to different things or that they might evaluate things differentlythan we do. As perceivers of other minds, we find it difficult to appreciatethis difference in perspectives because our own perceptions bias our ability todo so. In this dissertation, we set out to investigate this curious case of theperspective taker. We examined whether perspective takers could learn to setaside their egocentric perspectives in communication when they are explicitlyand repeatedly told to do so. To this end, we replicated four seminal studiesin the field of perspective-taking, who each evidenced perspective takers’egocentrism in communication. We subsequently adapted and extended theseexperiments to investigate whether an explicit focus on another person’s pointof view would attenuate perceivers’ egocentrism. This approach allowed us toinvestigate the replicability of earlier results and enabled us to compare thecurrent findings with past conclusions more effectively. The findings of ourfour empirical studies showed that perspective takers find it difficult todisregard their egocentric perspective in communication. Irrespective of anexplicit and repeated focus on their interlocutors’ different perspectives,perceivers were still very likely to describe situations from their own pointof view, to refer to information not known to their interlocutors, and tooverestimate the similarity in their own and their interlocutors’ beliefs. Ourfinal study showed that only directly experiencing another person’sperspective, through feedback, makes perspective takers less egocentric. Avaluable lesson we thus draw from our findings is that we – as perceivers ofother minds – should give our deductions a helping hand by acquiring actualinsight – possibly through feedback or conversation - that help us tounderstand others in a less biased manner. Presumably, this will remaindifficult and laborious for many people to achieve.Dissertatie SamenvattingEen cruciaal onderdeelvan ons sociale leven is ons vermogen om in te schatten wat andere mensendenken, geloven en voelen. Dit inlevingsvermogen zou ons moeten helpen om betermet elkaar te kunnen communiceren. Het perspectief van anderen innemen incommunicatie is echter niet zo eenvoudig. Sterker nog, wanneer we met anderenpraten, houden we er vaak geen rekening mee dat zij misschien anders naar desituatie kijken dan wij. Onze persoonlijke kijk op de wereld zorgt ervoor datwe vaak geen rekening houden met dit verschil in perspectieven. In dit proefschriftonderzochten wij of mensen hun egocentrische kijk op de wereld opzijzettenwanneer ze expliciet en herhaaldelijk gefocust zijn op het perspectief van hungesprekspartner. Om dit te bereiken, repliceerden we vier baanbrekende studiesdie eerder het egocentrisme van gesprekspartners hebben aangetoond. Vervolgenshebben we deze studies aangepast en uitgebreid om te onderzoeken of eenexpliciete focus op het standpunt van iemand anders dit egocentrisme zouverzwakken. Deze aanpak stelde ons in staat de repliceerbaarheid van eerdereresultaten te onderzoeken en de huidige bevindingen te kunnen vergelijken met dezeeerdere conclusies. De bevindingen van onze vier empirische studies toonden aandat mensen het moeilijk vinden om hun egocentrische perspectief te negeren incommunicatie. Desondanks dat mensen expliciet en herhaaldelijk gefocust warenop het (afwijkende) perspectief van hun gesprekspartner, beschreven mensen situatiesnog steeds vanuit hun eigen standpunt, verwezen ze naar informatie die nietbekend was bij hun gesprekspartner, en overschatten ze de overeenkomst tussenhun eigen opvattingen en die van een ander. In onze laatste studie toonden weaan dat alleen rechtstreeks de gevoelens en gedachtes te ervaren van anderen,bijvoorbeeld door feedback te krijgen, mensen minder egocentrisch maakt. Eenwaardevolle les die we dus uit onze bevindingen trekken, is dat wij ons inlevingsvermogeneen handje moeten helpen door niet enkel in te schatten wat een ander denkt,maar ernaar te vragen. </b

Walking in or Talking with Other People’s Shoes: Studying the Role of Getting Perspective and Mimicry on Interlocutors’ Interpersonal Accuracy and Empathic Concern

Common wisdom tells us that we need to walk a mile in other people’s shoes if we want to understand their perspective. We hypothesized that this simulation increases individuals’ empathic concern but not their accurate understanding of each other’s situation (interpersonal accuracy). We argued that the latter only increases through directly asking about others’ viewpoint (getting perspective). Participants met up with a stranger (target), assessed the target’s attitude on a wide range of topics (interpersonal accuracy), and reported their empathic concern towards the target. Beforehand, participants either (1) got the target’s perspective on these topics in a five-minute discussion, (2) mimicked the target’s facial expressions while watching her explain her experiences with the topics, or (3) watched the target’s explanation without mimicking her. Getting the target’s perspective increased participants’ interpersonal accuracy versus the mimicry and control conditions. However, the mimicry instructions did not improve individuals’ empathic concern compared to the other two conditions

Walking in or Talking with Others’ Shoes: Studying the Role of Perspective Getting and Mimicry on Interlocutors’ Interpersonal Accuracy and Feelings of Empathy

We investigated the extent to which two interventions (perspective-getting versus mimicry) affect individuals’ cognitive empathy (interpersonal accuracy) and affective empathy differently. Participants were invited to a Zoom-session where they met another participant (the target) who they had never met before. Participants were instructed to assess the stranger’s attitude on several topics (interpersonal accuracy) and to report their empathic feelings towards the target (affective empathy). Beforehand, participants were explicitly instructed to either (1) get the target’s perspective on these topics in a five-minute discussion (perspective-getting), to (2) mimic the target’s facial expressions (mimicry) while watching the target explain her general experiences with the topics, or (3) to watch the same monologue without the mimicry instructions (control). Results showed that perspective-getting increased predictors’ interpersonal accuracy versus mimicry and the control. However, the mimicry instructions did not result in higher feelings of affective empathy compared to the other two conditions