Effect of Perspective Taking on Moral Judgments in the context of Interpersonal Conflicts in U.S. samples

Perspective taking is often assumed to be morally beneficial and a key method for resolving conflicts. This research investigated two primary questions regarding the role of perspective taking in moral judgments in conflict situations. First, does taking the perspective of an opponent in an interpersonal conflict affect one's own moral judgments of that person? Second, does observing an individual engaging in perspective taking during an interpersonal conflict influence a third-party observer's moral judgments of that individual? Across three studies (1a, 1b, and 1c), participants who described a memorable interpersonal conflict were instructed to include the other person's thoughts and feelings (perspective-taking condition) or were given no such instruction (control condition). Results consistently supported the first hypothesis. Individuals in the perspective-taking condition judged the other party in the conflict as less wrong compared to those in the control condition. This effect was observed in between-subjects (Studies 1a and 1c) and within-subjects (Study 1b) designs, using both student and online samples. However, exploratory analyses indicated that despite taking the other person's perspective, participants still judged themselves as significantly more right than the person with whom they had the conflict. In Studies 2 and 3, third-party observers read conflict descriptions (collected from Studies 1a/1b or an online source) that either included or did not include perspective taking by the author of the description, or varied the degree of perspective taking. Contrary to the second hypothesis, observers did not judge perspective-takers as more right (or less wrong) in the conflict compared to non-perspective-takers. This finding was consistent even when the amount of perspective taking was manipulated. In conclusion, taking another person’s perspective serves as a useful tool for those involved in a conflict to mitigate their own harsh judgments of their opponent, but merely observing this act does not influence third-party moral judgments regarding who is right or wrong in the conflict.