Considering Both Sides: The Limits of Perspective Taking

Two studies explored the role of liking and fairness motivation in participants' ability to see both sides of a conflict. Undergraduates' open-ended responses to interpersonal conflict scenarios were coded for the degree to which participants considered the perspective of each party to the conflict. Discrepancies in liking for the parties produced less evenhanded perspective taking. When preferences existed, instructions to be fair and unbiased minimized consideration of both sides; respondents did not correct for partisanship, but instead bolstered their preferred perspective. Nonpartisans and overloaded respondents were most evenhanded. The studies demonstrate the powerful and automatic effect of liking on perspective taking and the limitations of fairness motivation in eliminating preference-based responses to a conflict.