No need to take what you already have: perspective taking’s effect on empathic concern for low-need targets

ABSTRACT

Recent studies have (quite persuasively) challenged a previous body of work suggesting that taking the perspective of targets described as experiencing highly distressing plights would increase empathic concern for those targets. In the current study, we test whether perspective-taking might still increase empathic concern for targets in less negative predicaments. College participants (N = 303) were given either perspective-taking instructions, or no instructions, before reading posts from targets describing negative, but not terrible, experiences. Consistent with recent results challenging the effects of perspective taking, even for these low-need targets, perspective-taking instructions had no effect on empathic concern (nor on other empathic emotions). However, participants in the perspective-taking condition were more likely to reach out to the targets by writing them a note in response to the negative experience. Results are discussed in terms of perspective-taking instructions having little effect on what perspective takers feel but possibly some effect on what they do.

KEYWORDS:

• Perspective taking
• empathic concern
• empathic response

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/8DKCM.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data, Open Materials and Preregistered. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.17605/.

Notes

1. As suggested during the review process.

2. However, see Lönnqvist and Walkowitz (2019) for an example of a manipulation where, relative to a control condition, perspective taking increased empathic concern toward a target who was not in need, but did not increase prosocial behavior toward the target (in the context of a Dictator Game).

3. An anonymous reviewer also suggested that the perspective-taking instructions may have conveyed an expectation to act in a socially desirable way, and thus oriented participants’ behavior in a way that reflected more attention to the researchers’ assumed wants than the target’s, leading participants not to address the letters to the target.

4. Accuracy at inferring others’ thoughts and feelings is often referred to as empathic accuracy; however, despite the “empathic” in its name, this interpersonal accuracy can be used in the service of decidedly un-empathic, even Machiavellian, goals (Hodges et al., 2015). Notably, explicit instructions to take someone else’s perspective are not generally found in studies of empathic accuracy; instead, research participants are simply asked to report what they think the other person is thinking and feeling.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Sara D. Hodges

Sara D. Hodges is a professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Oregon. She studies perspective taking, empathic accuracy, and social comparison.

Maria Wixwat

Maria Wixwat is a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology, University of Oregon. Their research interests include religiousness, spirituality, and culture.