Potential negative effects of perspective-taking efforts in the context of close relationships: Increased bias and reduced satisfaction.

Abstract

Three experiments demonstrated that trying to appreciate a close other's unique point of view (imagine-other perspective taking) increases the extent to which individuals overestimate their own transparency to the close other, that is, how many of their values, preferences, traits, and feelings are readily apparent to him or her. Trying to be objective and pay careful attention to cues from a close other, which inhibits perspective taking, instead had the opposite effect. Mediation analyses suggested that increased focus on the self as an object of evaluation contributed to the positive effect of imagine-other perspective taking on perceived transparency, and decreased focus on the self as an object of evaluation contributed to the negative effect of trying to be objective on these judgments. These effects on perceived transparency had important implications for relationship well-being: Enhanced perceived transparency of negative feelings prompted by imagine-other perspective taking during a back-and-forth exchange with a romantic partner led to systematic discrepancies between individuals' own and their partner's experience of the exchange and reduced relationship satisfaction; trying to be objective instead reduced perceived transparency and thereby increased satisfaction. Notably, initial closeness with another person enhanced rather than tempered the egocentric effects of perspective taking. Taken together, these results suggest that positive motivations to nurture a close relationship and be sensitive to a loved one might sometimes be better channeled toward paying closer attention to his or her behavior than toward perspective taking.

Distinct Effects of Imagine-Other Versus Imagine-Self Perspective-Taking on Prejudice Reduction

“…On the one hand, Vorauer and Sucharyna's (2013) failure to find any (positive or negative) effect of imagine-self perspectivetaking on objective self-awareness made effects here seem unlikely. On the other hand, if imagine-self perspective-taking does not heighten focus on the self as an object of evaluation, it may leave room for other processes such as enhanced selfother merging that have been linked to perspective-taking to facilitate prejudice reduction.…”

“…Vorauer and Sucharyna (2013) found that individuals who were instructed to engage in imagine-other perspective-taking during a discussion with their romantic partner referred to "me" and "myself" (indicators of objective self-awareness) more frequently in an open-ended thought-listing task than did those in a no-instructions control condition. Imagine-self perspective-taking had no such effect.…”

“…Participants' focus on how the target viewed them was assessed with an openended thought-listing task in which pronoun usage can be used to index objective self-awareness (see Vorauer & Sucharyna, 2013) and two open-ended questions asking participants to describe their impression of their partner and their partner's impression of them, with longer responses taken as indicative of greater cognitive energy devoted to the judgment in question. We also assessed cognitive resource depletion to further index, albeit more indirectly, participants' preoccupation with how they were viewed.…”

Perceived perspective taking: When others walk in our shoes.

“…There has been an explosion of research in recent years demonstrating a whole host of benefits that result from taking the perspective of others. For example, taking the perspective of another person increases liking of, compassion toward, and help provided to the target of the perspective taking (e.g., Batson, Polycarpou, et al, 1997;Davis, 1983;Davis et al, 1996;Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000;Maner et al, 2002; but see Vorauer, Martens, & Sasaki, 2009;Vorauer & Sucharyna, 2013). In addition, perspective taking has been shown to help facilitate social interactions, yielding smoother and more coordinated interpersonal exchanges (e.g., Chartrand & Bargh, 1999;Galinsky et al, 2005;Galinsky, Maddux, Gilin, & White, 2008;Neale & Bazerman, 1983).…”

An Exploratory Investigation of the Process of Perspective Taking in Interpersonal Situations

“…Participants frequently referred to struggles in doing this, and to circumstances where their own perspective in a situation prevented a fuller understanding of the other person. This provides a picture of the problems or issues that individuals typically grapple with in attempting to set aside their own vantage point to take on that of another, as well as the errors that can occur (see Epley et al, 2004 and, recently regarding transparency overestimation, Vorauer & Sucharyna, 2013). It also highlights a key component of perspective taking: namely, perspective is used in a dynamic way.…”