The Intriguing Journey of Understanding Others’ Perspectives
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Chapter 1: The Game of Perspectives
Let's engage in a little thought experiment.
Imagine a scenario involving two friends, Anne and Sally. They possess a box, a basket, and a marble. One day, while playing, Sally decides to place the marble inside the box and steps outside, where she cannot see or hear what happens next. Shortly after, Anne takes the marble from the box and places it in the basket.
Now, consider this question: When Sally returns, where will she search for the marble—the box or the basket?
This seems straightforward, right? Since she hid it in the box and was unaware of Anne's action, she will instinctively look in the box, even though it won’t be there.
This question is designed for children, as it illustrates a concept in psychology known as the false-belief task.
Section 1.1: Understanding False-Belief Tasks
The American Psychological Association defines a false-belief task as follows:
“A type of task […] in which children must infer that another person does not possess knowledge that they possess.”
Researchers utilize this framework to assess a child's ability to adopt another person's perspective. Interestingly, children under the age of four typically struggle to complete this task, as they fail to recognize that others may lack the knowledge they themselves have. This was the prevailing thought for many years.
However, recent studies suggest that infants younger than two can actually succeed in false-belief tasks, while older children often find them challenging. You might wonder how this is feasible since such young infants may not grasp the game's concept. While that's true, researchers have developed alternative non-verbal methods to evaluate perspective-taking capabilities.
Subsection 1.1.1: The Altercentric Bias
Section 1.2: A New Perspective from Research
So why might infants (under two years old) excel at perspective-taking, while older children (up to four years old) falter?
Victoria Southgate, a psychology professor at the University of Copenhagen, offers valuable insights. She introduces the concept of an altercentric bias, which suggests that infants prioritize the viewpoints of those around them over their own.
Southgate presents two key points:
- Infants place greater importance on shared experiences, which are vital for their social growth.
- They lack a fully developed self-perspective until they reach two years of age.
Initially, infants’ emphasis on others’ perspectives allows them to navigate false-belief tasks effortlessly, as they respond based solely on what the other person knows. However, as children grow older, they develop a stronger sense of self, leading to conflicting perspectives (self vs. others). At this point, their executive functions, which help manage these competing views, are still maturing, typically around ages four to five.
Chapter 2: Evolving Perspectives Through Development
As adults, we often find ourselves balancing between our self-perspective and that of others, although we predominantly view the world through our own lens.
The first video titled Don't Put Yourself In Other People's Shoes explores the complexities of empathy and how we can sometimes misinterpret others' feelings.
The second video, Putting Yourself in Someone Else's Shoes, delves into the importance of understanding different perspectives and its impact on our relationships.
Conclusion
Southgate's theory indicates that infants are inherently more altercentric than older children and adults, valuing others' perspectives more highly while having a less developed self-view. During infancy, our capacity to empathize is greater, but this ability diminishes between the ages of two and four as we begin to interpret the world primarily through our own experiences.
As adults, our self-perspective often dominates, influenced by our executive functions. Consequently, we tend to perceive our experiences as central. Nevertheless, we can still appreciate and empathize with others' viewpoints, albeit not as frequently as we might wish.