Elsevier

Acta Psychologica

Volume 143, Issue 2, June 2013, Pages 245-251
Acta Psychologica

Cool, but understanding…Experiencing cooler temperatures promotes perspective-taking performance

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.03.011Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A beneficial effect of cold temperature for interpersonal understanding is proposed.

  • Successful perspective taking entails less egocentric anchoring.

  • Cold temperatures reduce egocentric anchoring.

  • Cooler temperatures enhance perspective taking compared to warmer temperatures.

Abstract

The current research examined the impact of temperature cues on perspective-taking. Individuals often start with their own point-of-view when taking another's perspective and thereby unintentionally project their own perspective onto others, which ultimately leads to egocentrically biased inferences of others' perspectives. Accordingly, perspective-taking is enhanced under conditions reducing this egocentric anchoring. In two studies, we show that perspective-taking is enhanced when participants are exposed to cooler rather than warmer temperature cues. Specifically, this is shown to be the case, because cooler temperatures reduce egocentric anchoring in perspective-taking (Study 2). Results are discussed with reference to the literature on (temperature) grounded cognition indicating a link between cold temperatures and social distance. Hence, whereas earlier research has shown that individuals feel more distant from each other when undergoing cooler thermal experiences, the present research suggests that this thermal experience prevents them from over-imputing their own perspectives onto others.

Introduction

We all fulfill a variety of different social tasks and requirements every day. For example, we give advice to our friends, or we have to negotiate with our superiors when trying to get a pay raise or job enlargement. What do these diverse activities in different situations of our lives have in common? They all require active and accurate understanding of other individuals' perspective—perspective-taking—to bear fruitful results. By inferring other individuals' thoughts, feelings, or perceptions we can adapt our actions to them. We can explain and predict their reaction, which enables us, for example, to give a tailored advice to our friend, or to effectively negotiate with our superiors.

In line with the above examples, the psychological literature states that perspective-taking is a crucial mechanism involved in cognitive and moral functioning (Piaget, 1932), and it is often considered the basis of human social aptitude (Mead, 1934). Beyond that, substantial empirical evidence supports the beneficial role of perspective-taking for social interaction. For example, perspective-taking decreases stereotyping and prejudices (Galinsky and Moskowitz, 2000, Todd, Bodenhausen, et al., 2011), is helpful in negotiation contexts (Galinsky, Maddux, Gilin, & White, 2008), and even predicts skillful support in marriage (Verhofstadt, Buysee, Ickes, Davis, & Devoldre, 2008) as well as patient satisfaction in professional health care settings (Blatt, LeLacheur, Galinsky, Simmens, & Greenberg, 2010). Therefore, knowledge about factors hindering and facilitating perspective-taking is very important.

Recently, perspective-taking has been described and tested as a two-step process of egocentric anchoring and adjustment (see, e.g., Epley, Keysar, Van Boven, & Gilovich, 2004). This conceptualization suggests that one prevalent obstacle for successful perspective-taking is one's own perspective which provides a readily accessible anchor for inferences regarding another individual's perspective. Hence, for successful perspective-taking to take place this so-called egocentric anchoring needs to be overcome (e.g., Epley, 2008, Epley and Caruso, 2009, Epley, Keysar, et al., 2004, Epley, Morewedge, et al., 2004). The current research investigates, for the first time, whether experiences shaped by a pervasive feature of our physical environment may improve perspective-taking by helping to overcome egocentric anchoring, namely thermal experience. Specifically, we predict that cooler temperature cues facilitate perspective-taking, because they reduce egocentric anchoring.

This general hypothesis is the result of integrating a growing body of research on temperature grounded cognition with the domain of how humans capture others' minds and leads to the investigation of how thermal experiences influence perspective-taking performance.

Section snippets

Egocentric anchoring in perspective-taking

Epley and colleagues (e.g., Epley and Caruso, 2009, Epley, Keysar, et al., 2004, Epley, Morewedge, et al., 2004) suggested and demonstrated that the process underlying perspective-taking consists of two steps: Initial egocentric anchoring and subsequent adjustment from that anchor (see also Tamir & Mitchel, 2012). Due to its high accessibility, perspective takers' own view represents the ‘default’ or starting-point when intuiting another individual's perspective and thus serves in most cases as

Temperature grounded social cognition

Traditionally, it had been assumed that to make sense of their social world, perceivers rely on abstract, schema-like categories to structure incoming social information. However, a growing body of evidence laid the foundation for what is now known as grounded cognition—the notion that human cognition is grounded in and shaped by sensorimotor experiences (for a general overview, see Barsalou, 2008, Semin and Garrido, 2012, Semin and Smith, 2008). Accordingly, bodily sensations as well as

Research overview

Two studies tested the prediction that cooler temperature cues enhance perspective-taking (compared to warmer temperature cues) by experimentally manipulating temperature and using two different perspective-taking measures. In both studies, temperature was experimentally manipulated by letting participants hold a cup filled with cooler or with warmer water (a manipulation adopted from Williams & Bargh, 2008; see also Steinmetz & Mussweiler, 2011). Two different measures of perspective-taking

Participants and design.

Eighty-one undergraduate students (56 women, Mage = 24.85, SDage = 3.16, range: 20–34) participated in an experiment with two temperature cue conditions (cool vs. warm). They received 8 EUR (approx. $10) for completing an experimental session that lasted 1 h and started with the current experiment.

Procedure

The current experiment was presented as two separate studies and took place in the laboratory of the Social Psychology department of a German research institute. Groups of up to six individuals

Participants and design

Seventy-six undergraduate students (20 women, Mage = 24.26, SDage = 5.02, range: 19–51) participated in an experiment with a 2 (temperature cue: cool vs. warm) by 2 (privileged information: informed vs. ambiguous) between-subjects design. Five additional participants who were not native German speakers are not included in the sample reported here. Participants received 8 EUR (approx. $10) for their participation in an experimental study session that lasted an hour and ended with the current

General discussion

The current research indicates, for the first time, that cooler temperatures promote perspective-taking performance compared to warmer temperatures and that this is likely the case, because cooler temperatures reduce the influence of egocentric anchoring. This effect was supported across two studies using an experimental manipulation of temperature experience and two different tasks assessing actual perspective-taking performance. Whereas results of both Studies 1 and 2 suggested that the

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