How easy is it for you to see things from another's point of view?

[StrongInTheArm]

If you want something substantial to chew over, read on.

Apparently what culture you are brought up in can affect how easily you can see a situation from another person's point of view. In a recent study it was found that Chinese people out performed their American counter parts in this respect.

I don't think this could be extrapolated to a nation/culture as a whole, too smaller a study for that, but it makes for interesting thinking. It might explain a few of the stereo types out there about different peoples.


"When it comes to putting yourself in the shoes of others, cultures that emphasise interdependence over individualism may have the upper hand.
In a new psychological experiment, Chinese students outperformed their US counterparts when ask to infer another person's perspective. The researchers say the findings help explain how misunderstandings can occur in cross-cultural communication."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...viewpoint.html


Now, all of you fed up with trivial threads have something to sink your teeths into.

[G10]

It is very easy for me to do this. Ok, I know this sounds big headed!

Being brought up with a mentally disabled brother, I have always had to do this all my life to try to understand what it is he wanted or was trying to communicate. He would get angry, through tantrums and worse but there was always a reason why and this was because he couldn't explain himself at all.

This just seems like the normal thing to do now and I believe that one should always try to put themselves in another shoes and try to understand where they are coming from before losing it

btw - Doing this also shows what ones character is about

[Costin Trifan]

Sometimes is easy, sometimes is hard. It depends very much on the issue and the person.

[Missie]

Most of the time, it is easy for me...

I was born and grew up in Japan and moved to New Zealand then to Australia about 10 years ago. Living in these totally different cultures taught me a lot and even Japan, my home country looks different when you look at it outside-in. I now appreciate the differences and it applies to everything.

I also studied acting which I absolutely loved! Studying the character was like digging into someone's history and trying to understand where that person came from and why he/she thinks/react that way. We all do what we think/believe the best for the situation or what we know how to do it.

Having said that there are times it is difficult to understand someone only because it is too emotional to think about... I always feel better when I could let go of the emotional stuff and be cool with who she/he is though...

[Deejay Dan]

I'm easy, I almost can always see another persons point of view and am generally very empathetic, sometimes to a fault.

Except when someone makes me angry, then I see nothing but my point of view; which I guess it's pretty typical.

"You all won't like me when I'm angry" The Hulk

[potchie]

yes i agree it defends upon the issue and the personality of the person, me, sometimes i never notice the things which is bad until i seen it to other,

[ewomack]

Empathy is a creative act, but not all creative people have empathy.

If we could answer the question "what makes a person empathetic towards another person" we would be well on our way to solving most of the world's problems.

Oh well.

[watley]

I would like to say that I can easily see things from others' perspectives, but don't always succeed. What I do instead is work on the presumption that others have a perspective that differs from mine and try to deduce what the differences are.

[StrongInTheArm]

Might I add this piece of research to our discussion?

Apparently only human beings can be spiteful, it is their empathy which allows them to be so. It seems empathy and spite are two sides of the same coin. Being able to see a situation from another's point of view means you can also resent that person having what you do not.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...n-emotion.html

Spite is a common human reaction, says Jensen. "Imagine you're a kid at a birthday party. The mother gives you cake, then takes it away and gives it to another kid. It's not his fault, but you'll still be annoyed with him because of his good fortune. But chimps don't care who's got the cake, just who took it from them," he explains. In other words, chimps fail to see things from another's point of view.

...

And if a chimp's lack of empathy leaves it unable to feel spite, it may also fail to behave altruistically ... "There have been experiments that gave chimps the chance to be nice to another at no cost to themselves, but they weren't interested. They didn't have a human propensity to be nice".

[Domestic Diva]

Very interesting articles, SITA. One thing though - regarding spite being uniquely human. I have to disagree with the article based on my own experience with an extremely spiteful dog. For example: if we close her out of our bedroom, she will always "make" in the house (even if she was just out) or she'll do something else destructive. I dunno - when she goes out of her way to do something bad like - for *revenge*, it seems like she's spiteful.

Originally Posted by watley

I would like to say that I can easily see things from others' perspectives, but don't always succeed. What I do instead is work on the presumption that others have a perspective that differs from mine and try to deduce what the differences are.

Well said, oh wise one. I'm with you on this.

[pctec]

When other people are agreeing with me, the shoe fits quite well

[Brian]

The past few years it has become increasingly elementary for me to see something from someone else's shoes. I learned about life the hard way through a couple of unfortunate deaths and incidents and it brought me whole new perspectives. It changed my 'religion', my political leanings, and my general attitude towards life.

[Rankenstein]

I'd say that I'm very objective - I can easily step back and take in a situation from the outside. I'm not too good on the empathy though, I'm not really a 'people person' in ordinary circumstances. That is, I can understand what others are feeling, that part's fine, but I don't feel it very much.

[potchie]

specially in time that you didnt know what to do,, thinking and keep asking your self,, what things go wrong ,, and in biggest decision.. for me... opinion of other let you know the reality sometimes..

[Cryxellis]

There are times that you can easily see people's point of view, but sometimes it was also hard to predict. Let us say for example he/she is very transparent when he/she hurts or feel pain inside. Though he/she didn't show it, you can definitely see it to their eyes and the way they talk.

[Tinien]

it's very hard for me

[ewomack]

Originally Posted by StrongInTheArm

Might I add this piece of research to our discussion?

Apparently only human beings can be spiteful, it is their empathy which allows them to be so. It seems empathy and spite are two sides of the same coin. Being able to see a situation from another's point of view means you can also resent that person having what you do not.

Whoa... I didn't keep up on this thread. Though I agree with the article, I don't exactly agree with the way you characterized it above, SITA (at least in the first sentence - I agree with everything you say thereafter). The human ability to infer mental states to others is what gives us the ability to be spiteful or empathetic. What we do with that ability can result in either spite or empathy. I do agree that spite and empathy involve the same mechanics - the ability to "mind infer" thoughts from actions and information, but we do have some control over our spite and empathy. Humans can feel spite and say "I don't think that anger is well placed." Not that everyone does this, it takes effort and self-control, but humans do have the ability. So we can take that mental inference talent and put it to the use we "want."

No evidence exists that primates and other animals have the same mental inference ability. This might just be a result of performing the wrong experiments, though. Anyone curious about this topic should read "Baboon Metaphysics." Fascinating stuff.