Cultural differences in perspective switching: support for the representational hypothesis

Background: Mixed results have been presented regarding cultural differences in perspective taking. Two competing theories have been put forward that suggest interdependent self-construal, as observed in people from East Asian cultural backgrounds, would be associated with either worse perspective taking due to self-other mergence (representational hypothesis) or better perspective taking due to greater attention to others (attentional hypothesis), compared with people from Western countries with more independent self-construal. Research to date has been limited and no study to date has focused on switching perspectives during a task with both egocentric and allocentric demands. Method: A visual perspective taking task requiring responses from both the egocentric and allocentric perspective, across both perspective tracking (line-of-sight judgements) and perspective taking (embodied rotation) tasks, was completed by 126 healthy young adults. Fifty-nine were of Singaporean East Asian cultural background and 67 were Australian Westerners. Results: In the perspective tracking task, East Asians were slower to adopt the allocentric perspective. Both groups displayed an egocentricity bias indexed by an overall cost of switching back to the egocentric perspective on total response times. However, East Asians showed a greater influence from the allocentric perspective when switching back to the egocentric perspective. Both groups were slower when required to stick with the allocentric perspective compared to switch trials. In the perspective taking task, East Asians were slower at adopting the allocentric perspective. Both groups showed a cost of sticking with the allocentric perspective. Conclusion: East Asians take longer to adopt the allocentric perspective in tasks that require switching between perspectives. East Asians are more salient of other perspectives directly after adopting that perspective suggesting a contextually constrained self-other mergence not observed in Westerners. The results support the representational hypothesis of cultural effects on perspective taking.

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NO CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN THE GETTIER CAR CASE INTUITION: A REPLICATION STUDY OF WEINBERG ET AL. 2001

Episteme ◽

10.1017/epi.2015.17 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 355-361 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Minsun Kim ◽

Yuan Yuan

Keyword(s):

Cultural Differences ◽

Strong Evidence ◽

Empirical Data ◽

Cultural Difference ◽

East Asian ◽

Asian Population ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

East Asians ◽

Replication Studies ◽

Cross Cultural Differences

AbstractIn “Normativity and Epistemic Intuitions” (NEI), Weinberg, Nichols and Stich famously argue from empirical data that East Asians and Westerners have different intuitions about Gettier-style cases. We attempted to replicate their study about the Gettier Car Case. Our study used the same methods and case taken verbatim, but sampled an East Asian population 2.5 times greater than NEI's 23 participants. We found no evidence supporting the existence of cross-cultural difference about the intuition concerning the case. Taken together with the failures of both of the existing replication studies (Nagel et al. 2013; Seyedsayamdost 2014), our data provide strong evidence that the purported cross-cultural difference in intuitions about Gettier-style cases does not exist.

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Visual perspective taking is not automatic in a simplified Dot task

10.31234/osf.io/grsm7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Paula Rubio-Fernandez ◽

Madeleine Long ◽

Vishakha Shukla ◽

Vrinda Bhatia ◽

Pawan Sinha

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Recent Work ◽

Executive Control ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Switching Costs ◽

Visual Perspective ◽

Visual Perspective Taking ◽

Sighted Child ◽

Egocentric Bias ◽

Perspective Switching

In the Dot task, children and adults involuntarily compute an avatar’s visual perspective, which has been interpreted as automatic Theory of Mind. We conducted three experiments in India, testing newly sighted children (N=5; all girls), neurotypical children (ages 5-10; N=90; 38 girls) and adults (N=30; 18 women) in a highly simplified version of the Dot task. No evidence of automatic perspective-taking was observed, although all groups revealed perspective-taking costs. A newly sighted child and the youngest children in our sample also showed an egocentric bias, which disappeared by age 10. Responding to recent work on what Theory of Mind tasks actually measure, we conclude that the standard Dot task relies so heavily on Executive Control that the alleged evidence of automatic Theory of Mind might simply reveal perspective switching costs.

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Perspective Switching in Young and Older Adults

10.31234/osf.io/ptbrc ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Andrew Martin ◽

Jasmine Huang ◽

Lori Matuschka ◽

Marcus Meinzer

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Switch Cost ◽

Age Groups ◽

Preceding Trial ◽

Visual Perspective ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Visual Perspective Taking ◽

Age Related ◽

Perspective Switching

One aspect of visual perspective taking (VPT) is the ability to switch between perspectives associated with self and others. Attenuated inhibition of the egocentric perspective is thought to underlie perspective taking difficulties in older adults leading to impaired social function. 117 adults (50 older adults 55-79 years; 67 young adults 18-36 years) completed two visual perspective taking tasks. The first task measured perspective tracking and required participants to understand what can be seen from the egocentric or allocentric perspective. The second measured perspective taking and required understanding how objects are seen from the egocentric or allocentric perspective. Both tasks involved trials that were congruent or incongruent between the two perspectives in order to assess how the other perspective interferes with the task-relevant perspective. Trials were further separated into those that required switching (preceding perspective was different to current) or sticking (preceding perspective was the same). We show an egocentric switch cost during perspective tracking in younger adults thought to reflect inhibition of the default egocentric perspective in the preceding trial. However, this effect was not identified in older adults. Moreover, older adults showed greater interference from their own perspective when required to stick with the allocentric perspective. No age differences were identified during perspective taking with both age groups showing an egocentric switch cost and an allocentric stick cost. The results provide evidence for age-related changes in VPT that are dependent on the requirement to switch or stick perspectives. Increased egocentricity in older adults is apparent but dependent on the switch-related context.

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Does self-construal shape automatic social attention?

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0246577 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. e0246577

Author(s):

Ronda F. Lo ◽

Andy H. Ng ◽

Adam S. Cohen ◽

Joni Y. Sasaki

Keyword(s):

East Asian ◽

Social Attention ◽

The Self ◽

Attention Shifting ◽

Cultural Backgrounds ◽

Gaze Cueing ◽

Cueing Task ◽

Self Construal ◽

Interdependent Self ◽

Gaze Cues

We examined whether activating independent or interdependent self-construal modulates attention shifting in response to group gaze cues. European Canadians (Study 1) and East Asian Canadians (Study 2) primed with independence vs. interdependence completed a multi-gaze cueing task with a central face gazing left or right, flanked by multiple background faces that either matched or mismatched the direction of the foreground gaze. Results showed that European Canadians (Study 1) mostly ignored background gaze cues and were uninfluenced by the self-construal primes. However, East Asian Canadians (Study 2), who have cultural backgrounds relevant to both independence and interdependence, showed different attention patterns by prime: those primed with interdependence were more distracted by mismatched (vs. matched) background gaze cues, whereas there was no change for those primed with independence. These findings suggest activating an interdependent self-construal modulates social attention mechanisms to attend broadly, but only for those who may find these representations meaningful.

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Common and unique effects of HD-tDCS to the social brain across cultural groups

10.1101/408799 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

A. K. Martin ◽

P. Su ◽

M. Meinzer

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Cultural Background ◽

Visual Perspective ◽

Cultural Groups ◽

Social Brain ◽

East Asians ◽

Baseline Performance ◽

Visual Perspective Taking ◽

Self Reference

ABSTRACTCultural background influences social cognition, however no study has examined brain stimulation differences attributable to cultural background. 104 young adults [52 South-East Asian Singaporeans (SEA); 52 Caucasian Australians (CA)] received anodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) to the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) or the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ). Participants completed tasks with varying demands on self-other processing including visual perspective taking and episodic memory with self and other encoding. At baseline, SEA showed greater self-other integration than CA in the level one (line-of-sight) VPT task as indexed by greater interference from the alternate perspective. Anodal HD-tDCS to the dmPFC resulted in the CA performing closer to the SEA during egocentric perspective judgements. Baseline performance on level two (embodied rotation) VPT task and the self-reference effect in memory (SRE) was comparable between the two groups. In the combined sample, HD-tDCS to the rTPJ decreased the interference from the egocentric perspective during level two VPT and dmPFC HD-tDCS removed the SRE in episodic memory. Stimulation effects were comparable when baseline performance was comparable. When baseline performance differed, stimulation differences were identified. Therefore, social cognitive differences due to cultural background are an important consideration in social brain stimulation studies.HIGHLIGHTSCompared with Caucasians, South-East Asians were influenced by the alternate perspective to a greater extent during level one visual perspective takingAnodal HD-tDCS to the dmPFC shifted Caucasians closer to the baseline performance of South-East AsiansAnodal HD-tDCS to the dmPFC removed the self-reference effect in episodic memory in both cultural groupsAnodal HD-tDCS to the dmPFC reduced overall memory performance in the South-East Asians but not in the Caucasian groupAnodal HD-tDCS to the rTPJ reduced egocentric interference in a level two visual perspective taking task in both cultural groups

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Self-Construal Differences in Chile and South Korea: A Brief Report

Psychological Reports ◽

10.1177/0033294119868786 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 123 (6) ◽

pp. 2410-2417 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Paloma Benavides ◽

Taekyun Hur

Keyword(s):

South Korea ◽

Cultural Differences ◽

Latin American ◽

East Asian ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

The Self ◽

Two Cultures ◽

Self Construal ◽

Interdependent Self ◽

Latin American Countries

Latin American and East Asian cultures are generally considered to be collectivistic cultures. However, there are very few cross-cultural studies contrasting these two cultures against each other, as most studies in this field compare them to Western culture. Self-construal is one of the most used constructs to explain cultural differences, elucidating whether individuals of a cultural group see themselves as independent of their environment and others, focusing on personal motivations, or interdependent of others and their context, recognizing their role within it. This study intends to compare the self-construal of Chileans and South Koreans and observe the variability in the presence of these dimensions in these two cultures. A total of 200 participants from Chile and South Korea responded to the Self-Construal Scale. Chileans presented significantly higher scores on independent and interdependent self-construal simultaneously when compared to South Koreans. Also, Chileans presented higher scores on independent self-construal than on interdependent self-construal, while Koreans did not show a preference for either dimension. These results are consistent with previous studies on Chileans, implying that not all Latin American countries would adhere to collectivism.

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Pronouns and Visual Perspective-Taking: Two Replication Results

10.31234/osf.io/b5jda ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tad Brunye ◽

Tali Ditman ◽

Caroline Mahoney ◽

Jason Augustyn ◽

Holly A. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Response Times ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Visual Perspective ◽

External Observer ◽

Psychological Science ◽

Person Perspective ◽

Series Of Experiments ◽

First Person Perspective

In 2007, our laboratory conducted a series of experiments examining whether pronouns embedded in short sentences (e.g., I am/You are/He is peeling the cucumber.) modulate reaction times when participants are tasked to verify whether a picture depicts a described action. Critically, the picture depicted an actor performing the action (e.g., peeling a cucumber) from either the actor’s internal perspective, or the perspective of an external observer. Our results demonstrated that description pronouns do indeed interact with picture perspectives; response times showed faster verifications when the implied perspectives of the pronouns and pictures matched rather than mismatched. As expected the grammatical persons I am and You are promoted faster response times when verifying internal rather than external perspective pictures; in contrast, He is promoted faster response times when verifying external rather than internal perspective pictures. We interpreted these findings as indicating that readers use pronouns to differentiate perspectives, and are more likely to internalize the action when they are directly addressed as the protagonist (You are) or the sentence uses the first-person perspective (I am). These findings were published in Psychological Science in 2009. In this replication attempt, we conducted two experiments to understand the robustness and reliability of our original effects, with an emphasis on individual differences in pronominal perspective-taking.

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Inferring the Emotions of Friends Versus Strangers

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0146167212440291 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 38 (7) ◽

pp. 933-945 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Christine Ma-Kellams ◽

Jim Blascovich

Keyword(s):

Cultural Differences ◽

Emotional Experience ◽

Empathic Accuracy ◽

East Asians ◽

Cross Cultural Differences ◽

European Americans ◽

Relationship Types ◽

Self Construal ◽

Eastern Cultures ◽

East West

Three studies examined cross-cultural differences in empathic accuracy (the ability to correctly infer another’s emotional experience) within the context of different relationships. East–West cultural differences in self-construal were hypothesized to differentiate levels of empathic accuracy across relationship types. In contrast to the independent self prevalent among members of Western cultures, members of Eastern cultures generally view the self as interdependent with those with whom they have a relationship. Easterners, relative to Westerners, are more concerned with the thoughts or feelings of close others and less concerned with the thoughts or feelings of those with whom they have no relational link (i.e., strangers). Across three studies, the authors found that East Asians, compared with European Americans, made more accurate inferences regarding the emotions of close others (i.e., friends), but less accurate inferences regarding the emotions of strangers. Furthermore, individual differences in interdependent self-construal among East Asians predicted the degree of empathic accuracy.

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Group membership and the effects on visual perspective taking

10.31234/osf.io/wnrk6 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Dana Schneider ◽

Anne Grigutsch ◽

Matthias Schurz ◽

Romi Zäske ◽

Stefan R. Schweinberger

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Mental State ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Visual Perspective ◽

Interference Effects ◽

Social Categories ◽

Visual Perspective Taking ◽

Mental State Ascription ◽

Ethnic Nationality ◽

Level 1

It has been hypothesized that visual perspective-taking, a basic Theory of Mind mechanism, might operate quite automatically particularly in terms of ´what´ someone else sees. As such we were interested in whether different social categories of an agent (e.g., gender, race, nationality) influence this mental state ascription mechanism. We tested this assumption by investigating the Samson level-1 visual perspective-taking paradigm using agents with different ethnic nationality appearances. A group of self-identified Turkish and German participants were asked to make visual perspective judgments from their own perspective (self-judgment) as well as from the perspective of a prototypical Turkish or German agent (other-judgment). The respective related interference effects - altercentric and egocentric interferences - were measured. When making other-judgments, German participants showed increased egocentric interferences for Turkish compared to German agents. Turkish participants showed no ethnic group influence for egocentric interferences and reported feeling associated with the German and Turkish nationality to a similar extent. For self-judgments, altercentric interferences were of similar magnitude for both ethnic agents in both participant groups. Overall this indicates that in level-1 visual perspective-taking, other-judgments and related egocentric interferences are sensitive to social categories and are better described as a flexible, controlled and deliberate mental state ascription mechanism. In contrast, self-judgments and related altercentric interference effects are better described as automatic, efficient and unconscious mental state ascription mechanisms. In a broader sense the current results suggest that we should stop considering automaticity an all-or-none principle when it comes theory of mind processes.

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