The Cultural Boundaries of Perspective-Taking: When and Why Perspective-Taking Reduces Stereotyping

Research conducted in Western cultures indicates that perspective-taking is an effective social strategy for reducing stereotyping. The current article explores whether and why the effects of perspective-taking on stereotyping differ across cultures. Studies 1 and 2 established that perspective-taking reduces stereotyping in Western but not in East Asian cultures. Using a socioecological framework, Studies 2 and 3 found that relational mobility, that is, the extent to which individuals’ social environments provide them opportunities to choose new relationships and terminate old ones, explained our effect: Perspective-taking was negatively associated with stereotyping in relationally mobile (Western) but not in relationally stable (East Asian) environments. Finally, Study 4 examined the proximal psychological mechanism underlying the socioecological effect: Individuals in relationally mobile environments are more motivated to develop new relationships than those in relationally stable environments. Subsequently, when this motivation is high, perspective-taking increases self-target group overlap, which then decreases stereotyping.

[1]  Gillian Ku,et al.  Perception through a perspective-taking lens: Differential effects on judgment and behavior , 2010 .

[2]  Jeanine L. M. Skorinko,et al.  Perspective Taking Shapes the Impact of Significant-other Representations , 2012 .

[3]  D. Cohen.  Cultural variation: considerations and implications. , 2001, Psychological bulletin.

[4]  Masaki Yuki,et al.  Similarity attraction and actually selecting similar others: How cross‐societal differences in relational mobility affect interpersonal similarity in Japan and the USA , 2009 .

[5]  Diane M. Mackie,et al.  Affect, cognition, and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception. , 1993 .

[6]  Chi-yue Chiu,et al.  Culture and the construal of agency : Attribution to individual versus group dispositions , 1999 .

[7]  Eliot R. Smith.  Social Identity and Social Emotions: Toward New Conceptualizations of Prejudice , 1993 .

[8]  Cynthia S. Wang,et al.  Responses to normative and norm-violating behavior: : Culture, job mobility, and social inclusion and exclusion , 2015 .

[9]  H. Markus,et al.  Cultural Variation in the Self-Concept , 1991 .

[10]  B. Keysar,et al.  The Effect of Culture on Perspective Taking , 2007, Psychological science.

[11]  M. Yuki,et al.  Relational mobility: A socioecological approach to personal relationships. , 2012 .

[12]  G. Adams,et al.  Relational Mobility Increases Social (but Not Other) Risk Propensity , 2016 .

[13]  M. Olson.  Measures of Prejudice , 2009 .

[14]  Gillian Ku,et al.  The Effects of Perspective-Taking on Prejudice: The Moderating Role of Self-Evaluation , 2004, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[15]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  Addressing Moderated Mediation Hypotheses: Theory, Methods, and Prescriptions , 2007, Multivariate behavioral research.

[16]  M. Schoen.  The Moral Judgment of the Child. , 1933 .

[17]  Gillian Ku,et al.  Stupid Doctors and Smart Construction Workers , 2014 .

[18]  A. Galinsky,et al.  Further ironies of suppression: Stereotype and counterstereotype accessibility , 2007 .

[19]  G. Adams,et al.  Beware of friends: The cultural psychology of relational mobility and cautious intimacy , 2015 .

[20]  Adam D. Galinsky,et al.  The promise and perversity of perspective-taking in organizations , 2015 .

[21]  Toshio Yamagishi,et al.  In-group bias and culture of collectivism* , 1998 .

[22]  Jordan R. Axt,et al.  The Psychology of Residential and Relational Mobilities , 2015 .

[23]  Kosuke Takemura,et al.  Self‐expression and relationship formation in high relational mobility environments: A study of dual users of American and Japanese social networking sites , 2017, International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie.

[24]  D. Raphael,et al.  I: The Theory of Moral Sentiments , 1976 .

[25]  Dale Weston,et al.  Social Identification Structures the Effects of Perspective Taking , 2012, Psychological science.

[26]  Adam D. Galinsky,et al.  When to Use Your Head and When to Use Your Heart , 2013, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[27]  Dana S. Nau,et al.  The Inevitability of Ethnocentrism Revisited: Ethnocentrism Diminishes As Mobility Increases , 2015, Scientific Reports.

[28]  A. Maslow.  Toward a Psychology of Being , 1962 .

[29]  Yoshimichi Sato,et al.  Trust, cooperation, and market formation in the U.S. and Japan , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[30]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[31]  J. de Jong-Gierveld,et al.  Developing and testing a model of loneliness. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[32]  Gillian Ku,et al.  Perspective-Taking and Self-Other Overlap: Fostering Social Bonds and Facilitating Social Coordination , 2005 .

[33]  E. Harmon-Jones,et al.  Empathy and attitudes: can feeling for a member of a stigmatized group improve feelings toward the group? , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[34]  G. Adams.  The cultural grounding of personal relationship: enemyship in North American and West African worlds. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  Cynthia S. Wang,et al.  The Effects of Culture and Friendship on Rewarding Honesty and Punishing Deception , 2011 .

[36]  钟维尧,et al.  To Kill a Mocking Bird , 2019, History Research Journal.

[37]  Michael D. Buhrmester,et al.  Amazon's Mechanical Turk , 2011, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[38]  M. Yuki,et al.  Relational Mobility Explains Between- and Within-Culture Differences in Self-Disclosure to Close Friends , 2010, Psychological science.

[39]  T. Singelis,et al.  The Measurement of Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals , 1994 .

[40]  T. Yamagishi,et al.  Preferences Versus Strategies as Explanations for Culture-Specific Behavior , 2008, Psychological science.

[41]  John G. Lynch,et al.  Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis , 2010 .

[42]  K. W. Phillips,et al.  Maximizing the Gains and Minimizing the Pains of Diversity , 2015, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[43]  C. Chiu,et al.  The cultural effects of job mobility and the belief in a fixed world: evidence from performance forecast. , 2009, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[44]  T. Chartrand,et al.  The chameleon effect: the perception-behavior link and social interaction. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[45]  A. Galinsky,et al.  Perspective-taking: decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility, and in-group favoritism. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[46]  Carmen R. Wilson VanVoorhis,et al.  Understanding Power and Rules of Thumb for Determining Sample Sizes , 2007 .

[47]  Richard P. Larrick,et al.  Thinking of others : How perspective taking changes negotiators' aspirations and fairness perceptions as a function of negotiator relationships , 1998 .

[48]  Carl F. Falk,et al.  Why do Westerners self‐enhance more than East Asians? , 2009 .

[49]  S. Oishi.  The Psychology of Residential Mobility: Implications for the Self, Social Relationships, and Well-Being , 2010, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[50]  A. Elliot,et al.  Are Racial Stereotypes Really Fading? The Princeton Trilogy Revisited , 1995 .

[51]  James M. Weyant.  Perspective Taking as a Means of Reducing Negative Stereotyping of Individuals Who Speak English as a Second Language , 2007 .

[52]  Tanya Menon,et al.  Culturally Conferred Conceptions of Agency: A Key to Social Perception of Persons, Groups, and Other Actors , 2001 .

[53]  Sara D. Hodges,et al.  Perspective taking instructions and self-other overlap: Different motives for helping , 2014 .

[54]  Gillian Ku,et al.  Perspective-Taking Increases Willingness to Engage in Intergroup Contact , 2014, PloS one.

[55]  Margaret Shih,et al.  Perspective Taking: Reducing Prejudice Towards General Outgroups and Specific Individuals , 2009 .

[56]  Gillian Ku,et al.  Perspective-takers behave more stereotypically. , 2008, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[57]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[58]  C. Batson,et al.  Perspective Taking: Imagining How Another Feels Versus Imaging How You Would Feel , 1997 .

[59]  M. Bazerman,et al.  When perspective taking increases taking: reactive egoism in social interaction. , 2006, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[60]  Mark H. Davis,et al.  Effect of perspective taking on the cognitive representation of persons: a merging of self and other. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[61]  R. Baumeister,et al.  The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. , 1995, Psychological bulletin.

[62]  J. Dovidio,et al.  Prejudice, discrimination, and racism: Historical trends and contemporary approaches. , 1986 .

[63]  James D. Johnson,et al.  Bulletin Personality and Social Psychology Perspective and Prejudice: Antecedents and Mediating Mechanisms on Behalf Of: Society for Personality and Social Psychology , 2022 .

[64]  Linda R. Tropp,et al.  Ingroup Identification as the Inclusion of Ingroup in the Self , 2001 .

[65]  C. Batson,et al.  Empathy, Attitudes, and Action: Can Feeling for a Member of a Stigmatized Group Motivate One to Help the Group? , 2002 .

[66]  A. Galinsky,et al.  Perspective taking combats the denial of intergroup discrimination , 2012 .

[67]  H. Spencer.  The Principles of Psychology - Vol. I , 2016 .

[68]  Shelly L. Gable,et al.  Approach and Avoidance Motives and Close Relationships , 2012 .

[69]  Mark H. Davis.  Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. , 1983 .

[70]  G. Kilduff,et al.  From Glue to Gasoline , 2013, Psychological science.

[71]  A. Galinsky,et al.  pErSpECTiVE TakiNg uNDErmiNES STErEOTypE maiNTENaNCE prOCESSES: EViDENCE frOm SOCial mEmOry, BEhaViOr ExplaNaTiON, aND iNfOrmaTiON SOliCiTaTiON , 2012 .

[72]  C. Aberson,et al.  Contact, Perspective Taking, and Anxiety as Predictors of Stereotype Endorsement, Explicit Attitudes, and Implicit Attitudes , 2007 .

[73]  A. Hayes.  Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach , 2013 .

[74]  Cynthia S. Wang,et al.  The Cultural Dynamics of Rewarding Honesty and Punishing Deception , 2010, Personality & social psychology bulletin.