Walking in or Talking with Other People’s Shoes: Studying the Role of Getting Perspective and Mimicry on Interlocutors’ Interpersonal Accuracy and Empathic Concern

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePosterScientificpeer-review

    Abstract

    Common wisdom tells us that we need to walk a mile in other people’s shoes if we want to understand their perspective. We hypothesized that this simulation increases individuals’ empathic concern but not their accurate understanding of each other’s situation (interpersonal accuracy). We argued that the latter only increases through directly asking about others’ viewpoint (getting perspective). Participants met up with a stranger (target), assessed the target’s attitude on a wide range of topics (interpersonal accuracy), and reported their empathic concern towards the target. Beforehand, participants either (1) got the target’s perspective on these topics in a five-minute discussion, (2) mimicked the target’s facial expressions while watching her explain her experiences with the topics, or (3) watched the target’s explanation without mimicking her. Getting the target’s perspective increased participants’ interpersonal accuracy versus the mimicry and control conditions. However, the mimicry instructions did not improve individuals’ empathic concern compared to the other two conditions.
    Original languageEnglish
    Publication statusPublished - 2022
    EventConference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCOP) - Lille, France
    Duration: 29 Aug 20221 Sept 2022
    Conference number: 22
    https://www.escop.eu/events/22nd-escop-conference

    Conference

    ConferenceConference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCOP)
    Country/TerritoryFrance
    CityLille
    Period29/08/221/09/22
    Internet address

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