Effect of perspective taking on the cognitive representation of persons: a merging of self and other.
Two experiments examined the possibility that perspective taking leads observers to create cognitive representation of others that substantially overlap with the observers' own self-representations. In Experiment 1 observers receiving role-taking instructions were more likely to ascribe traits to a novel target that they (observers) had earlier indicated were self-descriptive. This pattern was most pronounced, however for positively valenced traits. In Experiment 2 some participants received role-taking instructions but were also given a distracting memory task. In the absence of this task, role taking again produced greater overlap--primarily for positive traits--between self- and target representations. In the presence of the memory task, the degree of self-target overlap was significantly reduced for all traits, regardless of valence. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.
Davis
M H
MH
Department of Behavioral Science, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida 33733, USA. davismh@eckerd.edu
Conklin
L
L
Smith
A
A
Luce
C
C
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012381:Role Playing; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception