Circling Science

Perspective mistaking: Accurately understanding the mind of another requires getting perspective, not taking perspective.

Tal Eyal, Mary Steffel and Nicholas Epley · 2018

Evidence
Experiment
Kind
Journal article
peer-reviewed
Method
Twenty-five experiments comparing perspective-taking instructions with other approaches to judging people
Sample
Multiple samples; the final experiment recruited 104 romantic couples
Published
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(4), 547–571
Fields
Empathy

Adjacent

Studies a related practice or mechanism, without testing Circling.

Twenty-five experiments found no reliable accuracy gain from imagining another person’s viewpoint; directly asking a partner improved predictions in the final experiment.

What it doesn’t show

These tasks test accuracy about particular emotions, preferences and opinions, not every meaning of empathy. In the final experiment, partners discussed the very opinions later predicted, so the result does not establish a general improvement in understanding someone across other topics.

Summary based on the abstract, the overview of the experiments, and the final experiment’s methods and results in the full text.

Links

Cite

Eyal, T., Steffel, M., & Epley, N. (2018). Perspective mistaking: Accurately understanding the mind of another requires getting perspective, not taking perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(4), 547–571. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000115