Can the curse of knowing be lifted? The influence of explicit perspective-focus instructions on readers’ perspective-taking

Perceivers of other minds often overestimate the similarity between their own and other people’s perspectives. This egocentric projection during perspective-taking is argued to originate from perceivers’ tendency to use their own perspective as a referential anchor from which they insufficiently adjust away to account for an alternative interpretation. We investigated whether an explicit focus on another person’s point of view allows perceivers to make sufficient perspective-adjustments, thereby attenuating their egocentric projection. Findings showed that we successfully replicated Keysar’s (1994) illusory transparency of intention effect (Experiment 1) and Epley, Keysar, Van Boven, and Gilovich’s (2004) findings that confirm perceivers’ egocentric anchoring and (insufficient) adjustment during perspective-taking (Experiment 2). We further showed that enhancing perceivers’ attention to another person’s perspective both prior (Experiment 1) and during (Experiment 2) perspective-taking did not diminish egocentric projection. Findings are discussed in light of the role of feedback in making accurate perspective-adjustments.