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# Perspective Taking: Imagining how aother would feels versus imagining how you would feel

## Details

**Authors** Batson et al.

**Year** 1997

**Publisher** Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

**Discipline** Cognitive Science

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167297237008) 
10.1177/0146167297237008

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Although often confused, imagining how another feels and imagining how you would feel are two distinct forms of perspective taking with different emotional consequences. The former evokes empathy; the latter, both empathy and distress. To test this claim, undergraduates listened to a (bogus) pilot radio interview with a young woman in serious need. One third were instructed to remain objective while listening; one third, to imagine how the young woman felt; and one third, to imagine how they would feel in her situation. The two imagine perspectives produced the predicted distinct pattern of emotions, suggesting different motivational consequences: Imagining how the other feels produced empathy, which has been found to evoke altruistic motivation; imagining how you would feel produced empathy, but it also produced personal distress, which has been found to evoke egoistic motivation.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To distinguish between two types of Perspective taking: thinking about how another person feels, and thinking about how you would feel in that same scenario.

### What they found (results)

They found that the two groups tasked with (1) imagining how the other felt and (2) how they would feel in the other’s situation both had emotional responses of empathy; with the latter also showing signs of emotional distress. In other words, there is a difference in why one feels something in relation to perspective taking exercises.

## Commentary

### In short

The act of empathy, where you feel how the other feels is connected to altruistic motivations, whereas, putting oneself in another's position is correlated with egotistical motivation as well. This implies a benefit of taking Perspective, is not just to expand your worldview, but to also increase one’s desire to help others.

### In more detail

That communication is affected by humans ability to take their own or another's perspective leads to a similar interest in the role of perspective in understanding how one feels. Bateson et. al. 1997 distinguished between two types of Perspective taking: thinking about how another person feels, and thinking about how you would feel in that same scenario. To test how these two types of Perspective taking differed, they did an experiment involving sixty students who were assigned to three possible conditions: to be objective, to imagine how the other feels, and to imagine how they would feel (20 people per condition). The participants listened to a tape of a girl describing how her parents had died in a car crash, and her struggles to take care of her younger siblings during her last year of college. The researchers measured the emotional reaction people had to the tape and found that the two groups tasked with (1) imagining how the other felt and (2) how they would feel in the other’s situation both had emotional responses of empathy; with the latter also showing signs of emotional distress.

This difference is noted in particular as it relates to human motivation. In other words, there is a difference in why one feels something in relation to perspective taking exercises. The act of empathy, where you feel how the other feels is connected to altruistic motivations, whereas, putting oneself in another's position is correlated with egotistical motivation as well. This implies a benefit of taking Perspective, is not just to expand your worldview, but to also increase one’s desire to help others.

**Patterns it shows** P

**How to cite this** Batson et al. (1997). Perspective Taking: Imagining how aother would feels versus imagining how you would feel. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.