Talaifar Sanaz, Buhrmester Michael D, Ayduk Özlem, Swann William B
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin.
Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2021 Mar;16(2):338-357. doi: 10.1177/1745691620958003. Epub 2020 Oct 19.
All too often, people who develop exceptionally astute insights into others remain mysterious to these others. Evidence for such asymmetric understanding comes from several independent domains. Striking asymmetries occur among those who differ in status and power, such that individuals with low status and power understand more than they are understood. We show that this effect extends to people who merely perceive that they have low status: individuals with low self-esteem. Whereas people with low self-esteem display insight into people with high self-esteem, people with high self-esteem fail to reciprocate. Conceptual analysis suggests that asymmetries in mutual understanding may be reduced by addressing deficits in information and motivation among perceivers. Nevertheless, several interventions have been unsuccessful, indicating that the path to symmetric understanding is a steep and thorny one. Further research is needed to develop strategies for fostering understanding of those who are most misunderstood: people with low self-esteem, low status, and low power.
常常有这样的情况，那些对他人有着异常敏锐洞察力的人，对这些他人来说却依然神秘莫测。这种不对称理解的证据来自几个独立的领域。在地位和权力不同的人之间存在着显著的不对称，地位低和权力小的人比他们被理解的程度理解得更多。我们表明，这种效应延伸到那些仅仅认为自己地位低的人：自尊心低的个体。自尊心低的人能洞察自尊心高的人，而自尊心高的人却无法做到相互理解。概念分析表明，通过解决感知者在信息和动机方面的不足，相互理解中的不对称可能会减少。然而，一些干预措施并未成功，这表明实现对称理解的道路是陡峭而棘手的。需要进一步研究来制定策略，以促进对那些最容易被误解的人的理解：自尊心低、地位低和权力小的人。
