RUNNING HEAD : Perspective Taking and Common Interest Generation Perspective Taking and Common Interest Generation to Promote Self-Like Characteristics and Enhance Impressions of Strangers

The present study was aimed at exploring ways to promote self-other overlap in the cognitive representations of strangers. To accomplish this, participants first identified traits to describe themselves, and then several weeks later under the appearance of a separate experiment, watched a 10-minute video of an interview with a stranger. While watching the video, participants either attempted to take his perspective, mentally generate shared interests, attitude and perspectives, or objectively observe him (N = 62). Whereas the proportion of traits shared by the participant and the individual in the tape did not vary across groups, and little overlap was revealed in the traits identified for self and other, female participants' impressions of the stranger were improved in the perspective taking and common interest groups. The results offer evidence that positive feelings towards an other can be promoted without necessarily altering one's overall cognitive representation of him. Promoting Self-Like Characteristics 3 Perspective Taking and Common Interest Generation to Promote Self-Like Characteristics and Enhance Impressions of Strangers We live in an increasingly diverse world where a great variety of people interact with each other on a daily basis. As these interactions increase, so does the opportunity for stereotypical thought. As Stuart states (2004, p. 6), “Stereotypes can be convenient: Like emotions, they store a considerable amount of information in quickly accessible form. ” Whereas stereotyping can enhance efficient processing, it can also have very negative consequences. Researchers have demonstrated that individuals have the natural tendency to rate members of their out-group more negatively, and in-group members more positively (e.g. Isbell & Tyler, 2003) based perhaps on stereotypes of out-group members. Moreover, stereotyping can lead to discrimination that results in various harmful effects, such as lack of opportunity in employment (Ziegert & Hanges, 2005; Tomkiewicz & Adeyemi-Bello, 1997), racial profiling (Aguirre, 2004), biased courtroom decisions (Bodenhausen & Lichtenstein, 1987) and even improper health care (Reismann, Talavera, Salmon, Nunez & Velásquez, 2004). Finding ways to overcome discrimination against Hispanics is particularly relevant in contemporary society, as the U.S. Census Bureau found that there were over 36 million Hispanics living in the United States (2000). It is also projected that Hispanics will make up almost 25% of the population by the year 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). With this in mind, the current study was aimed at exploring interventions that might reduce stereotyping and enhance impressions of a Hispanic individual. Self-other overlap Increasing cognitive overlap in the representation of the self and others is one way to promote positive affect towards individuals from an out-group. Self-other overlap involves an Promoting Self-Like Characteristics 4 individual taking part of the cognitive representation they have for themselves and attributing it to another, or attributing part of the cognitive representation they have for another to themselves. We find it easier to identify with those who we view as having characteristics like ourselves (Smith & Henry, 1996). In turn, we are also likely to form positive impressions of them (Davis, Conklin, Smith & Luce, 1996; Smith & Henry, 1996; Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000; Aron & Aron, 2004). When someone becomes a part of the in-group, a greater amount of overlap between traits is assumed. Members of out-groups are typically viewed as so because of the existing differences between an individual and the others (Isbell & Tyler, 2003). A study by Nier and Gaertner found that students rate other individuals more positively when they work together in a situation that produces cognitive representations as in-group members, who are more self-like (2001). These studies have demonstrated the cognitive inclusion of the other as a part of the self and show the importance in promoting self-other characteristics. How can one increase self-other overlap? Perspective-taking involves attempting to put oneself in another’s shoes and view the world as they do. The importance of this skill has long been recognized, as Piaget once defined it as being an important part of the stages of moral reasoning (as cited in Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000). The ability to do so has also been found to be positively correlated with social competence and self-esteem (Davis, 1983). Perspective taking has been shown to decrease stereotyping and in-group favoritism (Galinsky, Gillian & Wang, 2005; Galinsky & Gillian, 2004). Perspective taking has been found to be an effective method of reducing stereotypic thoughts as a result of an increased amount of cognitive overlap between the self and other. Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000) found that perspective-taking resulted in both increased overlap between the self and other and decreased stereotyping towards the elderly. Promoting Self-Like Characteristics 5 In a study by Davis et al. (1996), participants were instructed to either imagine themselves as the target individual, imagine how they would feel if they were the target individual, or objectively observe (control) while watching a videotape of an interview with a stranger. Participants who had been asked to role-play, or take the perspective of the target individual, showed a greater proportion of positive self-relevant traits that were also attributed to the target than those who simply objectively observed (Davis et al., 1996). This study demonstrates that perspective taking is effective in promoting overlap of self and other characteristics, and will serve as a base for the present study. The self-concept is encourage to be activated through the process of taking another’s perspective, and can have many positive implications. In a study by Crisp & Beck (2005), university students were asked to list common traits with individuals who attended rival schools. This manipulation was effective, and the participants who had been asked to list common traits showed an increase their positive feelings towards the rival university members (Crisp & Beck, 2005). Thus, encouraging participants to think of commonalties with another individual appears to encourage more positive ratings of that individual. However, although this manipulation was effective, it is unclear whether this led to an increase in the overlap of self-other characteristics. The present study will attempt to duplicate these findings using an adapted version of the manipulation employed by Crisp & Beck (2005) by encouraging participants to think of common interests, attitudes and perspectives they may have with a stranger. Promoting Self-Like Characteristics 6 Overview of Present Study The purpose of the present study is to attempt to promote self-like characteristics and encourage positive thinking towards a stranger by employing two intervention strategies: perspective taking and generating common interests. To this end, participants will first complete adjective generation and checklist tasks to identify self-descriptive traits. In a separate session, participants will be asked to consider their impressions of a Hispanic stranger. The critical manipulation is that participants will be asked to engage in one of three tasks while viewing this stranger. Specifically, participants will either be asked to imagine themselves as the individual in the tape, think of common interests, attitudes, and perspectives they may share with him, or objectively observe him. I hypothesize that participants in the perspective taking and common interests groups manipulation will experience a greater degree of self-other overlap and more positive feelings towards the individual. Method Participants Eighty-eight General Psychology students from Gustavus Adolphus College volunteered to complete two brief questionnaires regarding self-representation. All were given the opportunity to sign up for a second session, which was presented as an unrelated study on first impressions of strangers. Sixty-two students (33 females and 29 males) returned for the second session. Of these 62 participants, 52 students identified themselves as Caucasian, 5 as AsianAmerican/Hmong, 2 as African-American, and 2 Hispanic/Latino. All participants were awarded extra credit for each phase of the experiment in which they participated. Materials & Procedure Promoting Self-Like Characteristics 7 Session 1. Participants were first run in groups of around fifteen, and told they were participating in a study involving representations of the self. They were first given the Adjective Generation Sheet, on which they were asked to freely generate and list all the adjectives they felt best described themselves. Participants were given 3 minutes to complete this task. Upon completion, participants were asked to complete Goldberg’s 100 word Adjective Checklist (Goldberg, 2000), which consisted of 100 adjectives designed to measure the Big 5 factors of personality (see Appendix A). This scale was chosen because it was a reasonable length for the task at hand, and because of its established validity in exploring the Big 5 factors of personality. Participants were instructed to check all the adjectives they found to be self-relevant, and were given no time limit for this task. The adjectives had previously been categorized into positive and negative based on the Big 5 Personality Traits by Goldberg (2000). The categories included Surgency (Extraverted/Introverted), Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect. The positive traits were coded so that they coincided with these factors (Extraverted, Agreeable, Conscientious, Highly Stable, Intellectual) and the negative traits so that they coincided with the opposite of the positive traits. The checklist consisted of 45 positive and 55 negative traits. At the end of Session 1 participants were as