Perspective‐Giving in Social Interactions

Perspective‐giving refers to an individual (or group), sensing that another has a different perspective on a reality common to both, explaining their own understanding of it. Perspective‐giving is complementary to, but independent from, the more widely studied perspective‐taking; yet it too plays an important role in how people navigate social interactions. Given a dearth of social psychological research on perspective‐giving, we draw from research on associated concepts to propose a conceptual framework for perspective‐giving. We theorise that the recognition of divergent perspectives creates six psychological threats, each correlating to a distinct motivation for perspective‐giving. Taking a needs‐based approach, this framework is applied to moral repair processes following interpersonal wrongdoing. We argue that perspective‐giving is a mechanism used by victims and wrongdoers to address individual and relational needs, reach a shared understanding and achieve reconciliation within moral repair processes. Finally, we set an agenda for perspective‐giving research within interpersonal conflict and across social interaction domains.