Explicit instructions to foster perspective taking
As Kotsogiannis et al. (2024) revealed, when people often adopt the perspective of other individuals—as if observing the world from their eyes—they are more likely to develop and demonstrate intellectual humility. Consequently, experiences or events that encourage perspective taking should foster at least some facets of humility (for a review on how perspective taking evolves and develops, see Gehlbach & Mu, 2023).
Written instructions
In many studies, researchers have introduced explicit instructions that encourage participants to adopt the perspective of other individuals. To illustrate, in one study, designed to explore whether perspective-taking fosters the creativity of teams, Hoever et al. (2012) developed a method that manipulated perspective-taking in teams. In this study, the role of teams was to formulate a creative plan to improve the success of a theatre company. In one condition, each member of the team was assigned a distinct role, such as artist manager, event manager, and finance manager. In another condition, all members were assigned the same role.
Regardless of the condition, some teams were instructed to consider the perspective of each member as extensively as they can after reading a page that delineates how to adopt these perspectives. Specifically, this page underscored the benefits of perspective taking as well as how to adopt the perspective of each person—such as to ask themselves what is important to this individual. Other teams did not receive this instruction.
If each member was assigned a distinct role, the teams tended to generate more creative and useful solutions—but only if the participants were encouraged to adopt the perspective of one another. Thus, a blend of diversity and perspective taking may foster innovation. This study also implies that brief instructions may be sufficient to encourage this perspective taking.
A workshop to foster perspective taking
To diminish conflict between ethnicities, Goldenberg et al. (2018) designed and delivered a workshop that fosters perspective-taking. During this workshop
- the instructors first introduced the notion of perspective taking—defined as the capacity of individuals to imagine life from the perspective of someone else,
- as participants were informed, people can envisage how they would feel if they lived the life of someone else, such as the concerns and anxieties of this person, called affective perspective taking,
- in addition, individuals can envisage the beliefs, opinions, conclusions, and decisions they would reach if they lived the life of someone else, called cognitive perspective taking,
- the instructors then presented a case study about a leader who could not adopt the perspective of staff and thus could not develop a trusting relationship with these individuals or effect change,
- the instructors then discussed how this capacity to adopt the perspective of other individuals can improve over the lifespan,
- next, participants learned about three leaders— Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf—who were able to adopt the perspective of other individuals and could influence people as a consequence,
- participants were then assigned the role of manager, employee, or observer during a negotiation on how to diminish expenses—and, later, were prompted to consider how the three groups adopted the perspective of one another.
These workshops were effective. That is, after completing these workshops, Israeli individuals were more willing to offer concessions to Palestinians to diminish conflict and more hopeful the conflict would abate over time (Goldenberg et al., 2018).
Oblique instructions that encourage perspective taking
Rather than explicit instructions, some research has revealed that oblique instructions—that is, instructions that do not explicitly refer to perspective-taking—can nevertheless encourage individuals to adopt the perspective of someone else. For example, Pöhler et al. (2024) conducted a study that was designed to inspire teachers to adopt the perspective of mothers during a forthcoming consultation. Some teachers were explicitly instructed, and other teachers were obliquely instructed, to adopt the perspective of these mothers.
The explicit instructions revolved around the metaphor of hats. Specifically, participants were instructed to adopt the perspective of mothers by symbolically “putting on her hat”. That is, the teachers were encouraged to imagine how the phrases they express may be perceived or interpreted by the mother. They were also instructed to consider the thoughts or feelings these phrases could evoke in the mother. Finally, these participants were encouraged to express to themselves sentences that begin with the phrase “If I were the mother…” or “From the point of view of the mother…”
The oblique instructions did not explicitly refer to perspective taking. Instead, the teachers were merely instructed to ensure their terms and phrases can be readily understood by the mothers. Both the explicit and oblique instructions boosted the willingness of teachers to adopt the perspective of mothers.
Conditions that foster perspective taking
Workplace priorities
The strategies, goals, and priorities of workplaces may also affect the likelihood that staff will adopt the perspective of other people (e.g., Calvard et al., 2023). Parmar et al. (2024) proposed and substantiated this possibility. In their study, American participants read a vignette in which they were invited to visualise themselves as a manager of an electronics company:
- Some participants were told the company prioritises the needs of stakeholders over profitability. That is, during performance evaluations, managers are assessed on the degree to which employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and the community benefit from the company. The culture and communication of this company also underscore this priority.
- Other participants were told the company prioritises the needs of profitability. That is, during performance evaluations, managers are assessed on the profitability of their workgroups. The culture and communication of this company also underscore this priority
After reading about this scenario, participants completed a measure of perspective-taking, called the interpersonal reactivity index (see Davis, 1983). A typical item is “I believe that there are two sides to every question, and try to look at them both at work. When participants read about a company that prioritises the needs of stakeholders over profit, they were more inclined to adopt the perspective of other individuals. Thus, in workplaces in which people often consider how to satisfy people, rather than merely attract revenue or diminish costs, perspective-taking is likely to be more prevalent, potentially fostering humility.
The role of technologies and artefacts
Studies have also explored how various technologies and artefacts may enable individuals to assume the role of various individuals or characters, called role playing—an activity that facilitates perspective taking (to illustrate, for applications of virtual reality, see Heap et al., 2024). Mochizuki et al. (2022), for example, demonstrated how the appropriate use of puppets or avatars could foster perspective taking in student teachers. Specifically, small puppets, representing teaching and students, were attached to a specialised tabletop. Below each puppet was a transparent box with a light to indicate the mental state of each puppet: distracted, focussed, or normal, for example. The puppets could be shifted and rotated. And below the table was a web camera and a microphone, utilised to capture the voices of participants and the position of each puppet.
In teams of three, one participant assumed the role of a teacher and prepared as well as delivered a class. The other participants assumed the role of students and invoked their experiences at school to guide their responses. Later, the participants could watch these exchanges, but from the perspective of each puppet separately. The participants, therefore, experienced diverse perspectives. Although qualitative, this experience did seem to enhance the capacity of student teachers to adopt diverse perspectives.
Established benefits of perspective taking
When individuals recognise the benefits of perspective taking, they may be more inclined to adopt the perspective of other people—consistent with the theory of planned behaviour, for example (Ajzen, 1991). The following list outlines some of the established benefits of perspective taking. Organisations and leaders could attempt to disseminate these insights to encourage people to adopt the perspective of other individuals at least occasionally.
- When staff tend to adopt the perspective of other people, they are more likely to unearth and to propose creative, useful suggestions—especially if they tend to enjoy work—because they can accommodate diverse individuals more effectively (Grant & Berry, 2011).
- When individuals adopt the perspective of their spouse, their marriages are more likely to be fulfilling and satisfying (Long & Andrews, 1990).
- Whenever individuals adopt the perspective of someone else, they are more likely to be liked by this person (Goldstein et al., 2014).
- When people imagine how someone else would feel in a challenging circumstance, they experience feelings of empathy and a motivation to assist. In contrast, when people imagine how they would feel in this circumstance, they experience both empathy and distress, diminishing the motivation to assist (Batson et al., 1997).
- When individuals adopt the perspective of the person with whom they are negotiating, they are more likely to uncover deals that satisfy both parties; hence, they negotiate more effectively (Galinsky et al., 2008; for other studies that verify the benefits of perspective taking in negotiations, see Gilin et al., 2013; Trötschel et al., 2011).
- When individuals adopt the perspective of work colleagues, they tend to perceive conflicts as matters that can be resolved and not as unresolvable clashes in personality (Sessa, 1996).
- When staff tend to adopt the perspective of other people at work, they are generally more satisfied with their job (Parmar et al., 2024)—perhaps because they establish better relationships and perceive their work as meaningful.
How to overcome the limitations of perspective taking
In short, perspective-taking tends to improve social bonds and relationships (Galinsky et al., 2005). That is, when individuals adopt the perspective of someone else, they are often more empathic, trusting, and cooperative, for example. Despite these benefits, perspective taking does not necessarily enhance the capacity of individuals to accurately predict the beliefs or behaviours of other people. Instead, to predict how someone might respond in a particular circumstance, individuals first learn about the perspective of this person.
To illustrate, in an illuminating study, conducted by Eyal et al. (2018) and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104 people indicated the degree to which they agree or disagree with 20 statements, derived from Consumer Reports, such as “I would like to spend a year in London or Paris”. Next, these individuals predicted how their romantic partner would respond to the same statements before indicating their confidence in these predictions, on a scale from 0 to 10. To increase the accuracy of their predictions, participants were assigned to one of three main conditions:
- In the control condition, participants were merely invited to utilise any strategy they choose.
- To foster perspective-taking, other participants were invited to imagine a typical day from the perspective of their partner, envisaging the feelings and thoughts of this person for about five minutes.
- To clarify perspectives, some participants were granted five minutes to converse with their partner about whether they agree or disagree with a subset of these statements.
Finally, the romantic partner of these participants indicated the degree to which they agree or disagree with these 20 statements. Generally, relative to the control condition,
- if participants conversed with their partner about whether they agree or disagree with a subset of these statements, their predictions were more accurate; yet, these individuals were not necessarily more confident their predictions were correct.
- if participants merely adopted the perspective of their partner, their predictions were less accurate; however, these individuals were more confident their predictions were correct (Eyal et al., 2018).
Accordingly, when attempting to predict the behaviour of someone, people tend to underestimate the benefits of a conversation but overestimate the benefits of perspective taking. Presumably, they overlook the possibility that perhaps their opinions cloud this perspective. As other studies revealed, this limitation of perspective taking was even more pronounced when the other person was a stranger (Eyal et al., 2018).