Sit beside rather than face others: Influence of body orientation on psychological perspective-taking

Abstract

Researchers have often highlighted the social consequences of cognitive perspective-taking (CPT), although the conditions in which people can conduct CPT easily and accurately are relatively unknown. To identify the condition in which CPT can be conducted easily, this study posited that perspective-taker put their body schema into the position of the other person during CPT in a similar manner as in visuospatial perspective-taking (VPT). Accordingly, this study examined whether a smaller angular disparity between two persons would increase the accuracy of CPT. Fifty-two undergraduates participated in a musical tapping game (Newton, 1990), in a setup that made it difficult to accurately infer the other person’s mental experience. Half of the participants sat facing the target person, i.e., face-to-face condition (180°), and the other half sat next to the target person, i.e., side-by-side condition (0°). The results showed that the participants in the face-to-face condition made fewer accurate inferences regarding the other person’s mental experiences than the participants in the side-by-side condition. This suggests that the physical position of two persons mediates the mental processes of CPT and supports the hypothesis that mental body rotation present in VPT may also exist in CPT.