Perspective-Taking

Perspective-taking is a cognitive ability to understand or mentalize another person’s thoughts and viewpoints—the “why” behind another’s actions, beliefs, motivations, or experiences. It’s seeing the world from their eyes, not necessarily feeling what they feel (understanding why someone voted a certain way or chose a particular career path). Perspective-taking is a crucial skill for navigating social situations, alongside having cognitive empathy. A key component of social cognitive theory—a broad concept encompassing all mental processes to understand a social situation or another’s behavior—perspective-taking is about putting ourselves in others’ shoes, so we can understand their point of view and recognize they’re different from us in how they think/feel and what they’ve experienced. The two main types of perspective-taking are cognitive (understanding their thoughts and beliefs) and affective (understanding their emotions). Perspective-taking lets us make sense of social situations, regulate our own thoughts and behaviors, and adjust our actions to meet our own and others’ social goals (understanding why someone is angry or upset, even if we’d react another way or making decisions based on how others might perceive our actions). Its benefits are improved relationships, greater understanding of others’ perspectives and motivations, reduced conflict, and improved communication.Top of Form Also see Theory of Mind