Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2011 Jun;100(6):1027-42. doi: 10.1037/a0022308.
Five experiments investigated the hypothesis that perspective taking--actively contemplating others' psychological experiences--attenuates automatic expressions of racial bias. Across the first 3 experiments, participants who adopted the perspective of a Black target in an initial context subsequently exhibited more positive automatic interracial evaluations, with changes in automatic evaluations mediating the effect of perspective taking on more deliberate interracial evaluations. Furthermore, unlike other bias-reduction strategies, the interracial positivity resulting from perspective taking was accompanied by increased salience of racial inequalities (Experiment 3). Perspective taking also produced stronger approach-oriented action tendencies toward Blacks (but not Whites; Experiment 4). A final experiment revealed that face-to-face interactions with perspective takers were rated more positively by Black interaction partners than were interactions with nonperspective takers--a relationship that was mediated by perspective takers' increased approach-oriented nonverbal behaviors (as rated by objective, third-party observers). These findings indicate that perspective taking can combat automatic expressions of racial biases without simultaneously decreasing sensitivity to ongoing racial disparities.
五项实验检验了这样一个假设，即换位思考——主动思考他人的心理体验——可以减轻种族偏见的自动表达。在前三个实验中，在初始环境中采取黑人目标视角的参与者随后表现出更积极的自动跨种族评价，而自动评价的变化介导了换位思考对更刻意的跨种族评价的影响。此外，与其他偏见减少策略不同，换位思考产生的跨种族积极性伴随着对种族不平等的关注度增加（实验 3）。换位思考也会对黑人产生更强的面向行动的倾向（而不是白人；实验 4）。最后一项实验表明，与换位思考者的面对面互动比与非换位思考者的互动更受黑人互动伙伴的好评——这种关系是由换位思考者增加的面向行动的非言语行为（由客观的第三方观察者评估）介导的。这些发现表明，换位思考可以在不降低对持续种族差异的敏感性的情况下，对抗种族偏见的自动表达。
