Perspective-Taking in Social Interaction: The Influence of Speakers' Attention to Addressees' Different Perspective on Speakers' Audience Design

Previous research shows that speakers often fail to regard their addressee's perspective during conversation. This study investigated whether speakers' referential communication benefits from an explicitly stimulated attention to addressees' perspective. This aim was experimentally investigated among student dyads taking part in a referential communication game in which they were randomly assigned the role of the speaker or addressee. Dyads were allocated to one of three experimental settings, each eliciting a different perspective mindset (none, self-focus, other-focus). In the two perspective settings, speakers were explicitly instructed to regard their addressee's (other-focus) or their own (self-focus) perspective before construing their referential message. Results indicated that eliciting speakers' self-versus other-awareness did not influence speakers' audience design. We did find a relationship between speakers' self-reported perspective-taking tendency and their actual referential behavior. Self-focused speakers reported a higher perspective-taking tendency than other-focused speakers. Findings have been explained using the objective self-awareness theory.