title: "... As you would have them do unto you": Does imagining yourself in the other's place stimulate moral action?
abstract: Philosophers, psychologists, and religious teachers have suggested that imagining yourself in another's place will stimulate moral action. The authors tested this idea in two different situations. In Experiment 1, participants had the opportunity to assign themselves and another research participant to tasks, with one task clearly more desirable than the other. Imagining oneself in the other's place did little to increase the morality (fairness) of the decision. A different form of perspective taking, imagining the other's feelings, increased direct assignment of the other to the desirable task, apparently due to increased empathy. In Experiment 2, participants confronted a different decision: either accept an initial task assignment that would give them highly positive consequences and the other participant nothing or change the assignment so they and the other would each receive moderately positive consequences. In this situation, imagining oneself in the other's place did significantly increase moral action.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence 66045, USA. dbatson@ku.edu
authors.forename: C Daniel
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Batson
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Lishner
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dulin
authors.forename: Sanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harjusola-Webb
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Stocks
authors.forename: Shawna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gale
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sampat
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D011385:Projection; D012938:Social Perception