Do You See What I See (DYSWIS)? Understanding Individual Differences in Spontaneous Spatial Perspective-Taking

Traditionally, spatial perspective-taking (sPT) has been investigated as an ability to take the perspective of others when explicitly instructed to do so. However, more recent findings suggest that, even in the absence of explicit instruction, people sometimes take the visual perspective of others when observing a visual scene, that is, they engage in spontaneous sPT. To explain why, research has so far focused on features of the visual scene. Here, we focus on the observer. By developing a novel task, the Do You See What I See (DYSWIS) task, across 4 studies (N = 603; age range: 18-36 years), we find that some people are systematically more likely than others to choose the perspective of others across conditions and when tested 2 weeks apart. These individual differences in spontaneous sPT correlate with the ability to take the perspective of others when explicitly instructed to do so and with self-reported empathy in 3 out of 4 studies, while they are not associated with mental rotation or non-verbal reasoning abilities. These associations are stable across different visual scenes, even if some features of the scenes, such as the presence of humans or their implied movement, substantially enhance spontaneous sPT. Taken together, this work demonstrates that people systematically differ in their spontaneous tendency to take the visual perspective of others, highlighting the importance of investigating sPT not only as an ability, but also as a disposition or choice.