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Lifting the curse of knowing: How feedback improves perspective-taking
Debby Damen1, Marije van Amelsvoort1, Per van der Wijst1
1Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|January 11, 2021
Summary
Understanding others' perspectives is challenging due to egocentric bias. Narrative feedback effectively reduces this bias, leading to more accurate perspective-taking, unlike accuracy feedback alone.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- People often rely on their own knowledge, leading to egocentric anchoring.
- This bias causes overestimation of shared viewpoints, hindering accurate perspective-taking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate feedback types that reduce egocentric bias in perspective-taking.
- To compare the effects of no feedback, accuracy feedback, and narrative feedback.
Main Methods:
- Participants were assigned to one of three feedback conditions: no feedback, accuracy feedback, or narrative feedback.
- Perspective-taking accuracy was assessed after feedback was provided.
Main Results:
- Feedback generally increased perspective-judgment adjustments compared to no feedback.
- Narrative feedback, but not accuracy feedback, significantly reduced egocentric bias in future assessments.
- Participants adjusted their perspective similarly for both feedback types within the same trial.
Conclusions:
- Narrative feedback is more effective than accuracy feedback in mitigating egocentric bias.
- Findings have implications for understanding and improving perspective-taking abilities.
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