title: When to use your head and when to use your heart: the differential value of perspective-taking versus empathy in competitive interactions.
abstract: Four studies explored whether perspective-taking and empathy would be differentially effective in mixed-motive competitions depending on whether the critical skills for success were more cognitively or emotionally based. Study 1 demonstrated that individual differences in perspective-taking, but not empathy, predicted increased distributive and integrative performance in a multiple-round war game that required a clear understanding of an opponent's strategic intentions. Conversely, both measures and manipulations of empathy proved more advantageous than perspective-taking in a relationship-based coalition game that required identifying the strength of interpersonal connections (Studies 2-3). Study 4 established a key process: perspective-takers were more accurate in cognitive understanding of others, whereas empathy produced stronger accuracy in emotional understanding. Perspective-taking and empathy were each useful but in different types of competitive, mixed-motive situations-their success depended on the task-competency match. These results demonstrate when to use your head versus your heart to achieve the best outcomes for oneself.
authors.affiliation: Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gilin
authors.forename: William W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Maddux
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.forename: Adam D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Galinsky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002170:Canada; D003071:Cognition; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult