How Does it Feel to Be Part of the Minority?: Impacts of Perspective Taking on Prosocial Behavio

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisol Rodríguez Chatruc ◽  
Sandra V. Rozo

Can online experiences that illustrate the lives of vulnerable populations improve prosocial behaviors and reduce prejudice? We randomly assign 850 individuals to: i) an online game that immerses individuals in the life decisions of a Venezuelan migrant and ii) a documentary about the migration process of Venezuelans to Colombia. Both treatments effectively improve altruism and reduce prejudice towards migrants. The impacts of both treatments are not statistically different in any of the other outcomes that we examine. The effects of the game are mainly driven by changes in perspective-taking while the effects of the video are induced by changes in both empathy and perspective-taking.

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 2144-2166
Author(s):  
Benjamin J Li ◽  
Hye Kyung Kim

This study capitalizes on the unique capability of virtual reality (VR) to examine the efficacy of self- versus other-embodied perspective taking in promoting kidney donation in Singapore. The study used a 2 (self- vs other-embodied) × 2 (mirror vs photo presentation) between-subjects VR experiment ( N = 128), wherein participants played the role of a patient needing a kidney donation, either as themselves or as a typical organ-failure patient. Our findings showed that self-embodied perspective taking triggered self-oriented emotions (i.e. personal distress) and subsequently egoistic motivations that resulted in alternative prosocial behaviors (e.g. monetary donation, volunteering) than kidney donation. We found that embodying the other, rather than the self, had the practical benefit of inducing other-oriented emotions (i.e. empathy) and hence altruistic motivations that promoted kidney donation. This study clarified the conditions under which embodied perspective taking promoted different prosocial outcomes, and the specific mechanisms through which it achieved those outcomes.


Author(s):  
Nieves Correa Rodríguez ◽  
Juan Rodríguez ◽  
Esperanza Ceballos ◽  
Miriam Álvarez

The polarization of postures in conflicts among parents and adolescents involve a threat for family harmony. Skills for argumentation and perspective taking are required to enable the achievement of satisfactory agreements during the processes of negotiation. The purpose of this paper has been to analyze the skills of parents and adolescents to adopt other perspectives when discussing a conflict by means of observational methodology. The study was carried out with 29 families (constituted by father, mother and an adolescent son or daughter) who were recorded while they argued about a real conflict. Frequency and duration of five levels of perspective-taking were registered (Myself; Reasoned myself; the other like an obstacle; the other adding to me; and us) in the discourse of the family, and also in the different members of the triad, considering their interrelations. The results were showing a moderated level of perspective-taking in family discussions, predominating the levels Reasoned myself, focused on explaining own perspective, and The other like an obstacle, focused on reasons to contest the perspective of the other. In general parents showed more perspective-taking. Particularly the mothers exhibited more sensitivity with her adolescent son or daughter, providing higher levels of perspective-taking and argumentation.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-163
Author(s):  
Klaus Minde

The present article discusses developmental changes of aggression seen in preschool children and reports on an 18-month short-term prospective study of three preschool populations: a group referred for aggressive behavior problems, a normal control group, and a group of youngsters who had lived in violent homes, but showed no aggressive behaviors. Results indicate that the aggressive children, in comparison with the other two groups at age 4, showed a significant delay in their interpersonal awareness and perspective taking ability. However, although the aggressive children caught up with their peers in the course of the study period, there was no accompanying decrease in their aggressive behavior. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.


Author(s):  
Kirsten Hastrup

Klima og klimaforandringer er blevet nye store temaer i antropologien, og det er påtrængende at stille kritiske spørgsmål til brugen af disse begreber, der synes at indeholde både konkret (lokalt) vejr og abstrakt (globalt) klima. Spørgsmålet er, hvordan man kan bruge „klimaet“ strategisk og produktivt i antropologiske analyser uden at gøre det til endnu en udefrakommende ulykke, der rammer klodens svage befolkninger. I artiklen argumenteres der for en nytænkning af skalabegrebet, som kan rumme både det „lokale“ og det „globale“, i og med at der er tale om et analytisk perspektiv snarere end et empirisk forhold. Herigennem åbnes der for en komparativ analyse af „klimaets“ infiltrering i det sociale og dets varierende forklaringsværdi. Artiklen trækker på forfatterens arbejde i Island og Grønland. Søgeord: klimaforandringer, skala, worlding, Island, Grønland English: Climate Explanations: Perspective and Scale in the Study of the High North“Climate” has entered into everyday parlance across the globe. In anthropology, “climate change” has opened up a new field of concern for vulnerable populations on the one hand and for the distinctiveness of the discipline on the other. In this article it is argued that while climate as such is a meteorological abstraction, it may also function as a strategic perspective, which allows for a comparison between ascribed values and dynamisms in social worlds. It is further shown how the implications of worldwide climate change open up for a new understanding of scale as an analytical rather than an empirical category. The substance draws from the author’s work in Northwest Greenland and in Iceland. Keywords: Climate change, scale, worlding, Iceland, Greenland 


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Nora Mcdonald ◽  
Helena M. Mentis

Designing technologies that support the cybersecurity of older adults with memory concerns involves wrestling with an uncomfortable paradox between surveillance and independence and the close collaboration of couples. This research captures the interactions between older adult couples where one or both have memory concerns—a primary feature of cognitive decline—as they make decisions on how to safeguard their online activities using a Safety Setting probe we designed, and over the course of several informal interviews and a diary study. Throughout, couples demonstrated a collaborative mentality to which we apply a frame of citizenship in opensource collaboration, specifically (a) histories of participation , (b) lower barriers to participation, and (c) maintaining ongoing contribution. In this metaphor of collaborative enterprise, one partner (or member of the couple) may be the service provider and the other may be the participant, but at varying moments, they may switch roles while still maintaining a collaborative focus on preserving shared assets and freedom on the internet. We conclude with a discussion of what this service provider-contributor mentality means for empowerment through citizenship, and implications for vulnerable populations’ cybersecurity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 475-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce H. L. Lui ◽  
Christopher T. Barry ◽  
David K. Marcus

Introduction: Research documents a robust relation between callous-unemotional (CU) traits and impairments in emotion-processing in youth, yet few evidence-based treatments targeting these deficits exist for youth with CU traits. This study examined a novel Emotion-Processing Skills Training (EPST) to target emotion recognition and perspective-taking deficits in adolescents with CU traits through an additive design. Methods: Fifty-six adolescents (Mage = 16.54, SD = .57, 83.9% male, 67.9% White/Caucasian) attending a voluntary residential program received treatment as usual (TAU) or the EPST intervention plus TAU (EPST + TAU) in a partially randomized trial. Assessments were conducted at four time-points, and they involved adolescent-, parent-, peer-, and staff-report. Outcomes of interest included emotion recognition, perspective-taking, CU traits, empathy, prosocial behaviors, social problems, and externalizing problems. Results: Participants who received EPST significantly improved more on perspective-taking at post-treatment than those who only received TAU. Those who only received TAU significantly declined on self-reported empathy and prosocial behaviors from baseline to 12-week follow-up, but those who received EPST declined less or had minimal change. Participants across conditions improved on self-reported CU traits, social problems, and externalizing problems and parent-reported CU traits, social problems, and externalizing problems across time. Discussion: The EPST intervention yielded largely comparable changes to TAU, but in some cases, EPST may have buffered participants from decline in their affective, social, and behavioral functioning. Implications for treatment of adolescents with CU traits are discussed.


Author(s):  
Giovanni Stanghellini

This chapter discusses how perspectivism is the device through which each one of us, who first and foremost sees the world from his point of view, is able to recognize that precisely as just one point of view, and thereby to change it. A healthy mental condition implies the ability to change one’s point of view and temporarily take the perspective of another person. The stronger the reciprocity of perspectives between my former and my present ego, and between my own vantage and the Other’s, the weaker the tendency to perceive my motivations as absolutely necessary. Perspectivism allows me to see myself as not strictly determined by the past and by the involuntary, and may restore a sense of agency. This explains why the reciprocity of perspectives is a therapeutic goal and perspectivism—the attempt to see things from the point of view of the Other—is a therapeutic device.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-294
Author(s):  
Piotr Cap

Abstract The present paper explores the current nexus between Cognitive Linguistics (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), focusing on theories of conceptual positioning, distancing and perspective-taking in discourse space. It assesses the strengths, limitations, and prospects for further operationalization of positioning as a valid methodology in CDA, and political discourse studies in particular. In the first part, I review the cognitive models of positioning that have made the most significant contribution to CDA. Discussing Deictic Space Theory and Text World Theory, among others, I argue that these models reveal further theoretical potential which has not been exploited yet. While they offer a comprehensive and plausible account of how representations and ideologically charged worldviews are established, they fail to deliver a pragmatic explanation of how addressees are made to establish a worldview, in the service of speaker’s goals. The second part of the paper outlines Proximization Theory, a discursive model of crisis and conflict construction in political discourse. I argue that, unlike the other models, it fully captures the complex geopolitical and ideological positioning in political discourse space, providing a viable handle on the dynamics of conflict between the opposing ideologies of the space.


Author(s):  
Juan Antonio Rodríguez Hernández ◽  
Nieves Correa Rodríguez ◽  
Esperanza Ceballos Vacas

Abstract.WHO IS GOING WITH YOU TO THE PARTY? MANAGING CONFLICT BETWEEN PARENTS AND ADOLESCENTSFamily life may be may be in risk when parents and adolescent face conflicts from closed positions. The processes of conflict demand perspectivism competences as an essential resource to facilitate the achievement of satisfactory arrangements for all through adequate argumentation. The purpose of this paper has been to analyze the skills of parents and adolescents to adopt other perspectives when discussing a conflict by means of observational methodology. The study was carried out with 29 families (constituted by father, mother and an adolescent son or daughter) who were recorded while they argued about a real conflict. Frequency of five levels of perspective-taking were registered (Myself; Reasoned myself; The other like an obstacle; The other adding to me; and Us) in the discourse of the family, and also in the different members of the triad, considering their interrelations. The results were showing a moderated level of perspective-taking in family discussions, predominating the levels Reasoned myself, focused on explaining own perspective, and The other like an obstacle, focused on reasons to contest the perspective of the other. In general parents showed more perspective-taking. Particularly the mothers exhibited more sensitivity with her adolescent son or daughter, providing higher levels of perspective-taking and argumentation.Keywords: Family conflicts, parents-adolescents, oral argumentation, perspective-taking, negotiation.Resumen.La convivencia familiar puede ponerse en peligro cuando los padres e hijos adolescentes afrontan los conflictos desde posturas cerradas. Los procesos de conflicto, en un contexto de convivencia, requieren poner en marcha el perspectivismo como recurso imprescindible para facilitar el logro de acuerdos satisfactorios para todos a través de una adecuada argumentación. Mediante la metodología observacional, analizamos la capacidad de adoptar otras perspectivas durante los conflictos familiares. La muestra está compuesta por 87 participantes, organizados en 29 tríadas familiares (constituidas por el padre, la madre y un/a hijo/a adolescente) que fueron grabadas mientras discutían acerca de un conflicto real. Se analizan la frecuencia de cinco niveles perspectivistas (Yo simple; Yo Razonado; el Otro como Obstáculo; el Otro Añadido; y Nosotros) en el discurso familiar, en función de cada uno de los miembros de la tríada, así como las relaciones que se establecen entre sí. Los resultados muestran el predominio de los niveles «Yo Razonado» con explicaciones sobre la propia posición, y «el Otro como Obstáculo» con razones para rebatir las posiciones contrarias. Los padres, en general, conceden mayor oportunidad al perspectivismo que los adolescentes, especialmente las madres, quienes muestran más sensibilidad con los hijos/as al emplear niveles perspectivistas y de argumentación más elevados.Palabras clave: Conflictos familiares, padres-adolescentes, argumentación oral, perspectivismo, negociación.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Hartung ◽  
Peter Withers ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
Roel M. Willems

Experiments have shown that compared to fictional texts, readers read factual texts faster and have better memory for described situations. Reading fictional texts on the other hand seems to improve memory for exact wordings and expressions. Most of these studies used a ‘newspaper’ versus ‘literature’ comparison. In the present study, we investigated the effect of reader’s expectation to whether information is true or fictional with a subtler manipulation by labelling short stories as either based on true or fictional events. In addition, we tested whether narrative perspective or individual preference in perspective taking affects reading true or fictional stories differently. In an online experiment, participants (final N=1742) read one story which was introduced as based on true events or as fictional (factor fictionality). The story could be narrated in either 1st or 3rd person perspective (factor perspective). We measured immersion in and appreciation of the story, perspective taking, as well as memory for events. We found no evidence that knowing a story is fictional or based on true events influences reading behavior or experiential aspects of reading. We suggest that it is not whether a story is true or fictional, but rather expectations towards certain reading situations (e.g. reading newspaper or literature) which affect behavior by activating appropriate reading goals. Results further confirm that narrative perspective partially influences perspective taking and experiential aspects of reading.


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