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Perceiving Others’ Feelings: The Importance of Personality and Social Structure

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  • Sherman, Gary D.
  • Lerner, Jennifer
  • Renshon, Jonathan
  • Ma-Kellams, Christine
  • Joel, Samantha

Abstract

Recent research has explored the relationship between social hierarchy and empathic accuracy— the ability to accurately infer others’ mental states. In the current research, we tested the hypothesis that, regardless of one’s personal level of status and power, simply believing that social inequality is natural and morally acceptable (e.g., endorsement of social dominance orientation, or SDO), would be negatively associated with empathic accuracy. In a sample of managers, a group for whom empathic accuracy is a valuable skill, empathic accuracy was lower for those who possessed structural power and also for those who endorsed social dominance, regardless of their structural power. Moreover, men were less empathically accurate than women, a relationship statistically mediated by men’s higher SDO and greater structural power. These findings suggest that for empathic abilities, it matters just as much what you think about social hierarchies as it does where you stand within them.

Suggested Citation

  • Sherman, Gary D. & Lerner, Jennifer & Renshon, Jonathan & Ma-Kellams, Christine & Joel, Samantha, 2015. "Perceiving Others’ Feelings: The Importance of Personality and Social Structure," Scholarly Articles 34721613, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:hrv:hksfac:34721613
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sujin Lee & Wendi L. Adair & Seong-Jee Seo, 2013. "Cultural Perspective Taking in Cross-Cultural Negotiation," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 389-405, May.
    2. Margaret A. Neale & Max H. Bazerman, 1983. "The Role of Perspective-Taking Ability in Negotiating under Different Forms of Arbitration," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 36(3), pages 378-388, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ma-Kellams, Christine & Lerner, Jennifer S., 2016. "Trust Your Gut or Think Carefully? Examining Whether an Intuitive versus a Systematic Mode of Thought Produces Greater Empathic Accuracy," Working Paper Series 16-017, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    2. Ma-Kellams, Christine & Lerner, Jennifer, 2016. "Trust your gut or think carefully? Examining whether an intuitive, versus a systematic, mode of thought produces greater empathic accuracy," Scholarly Articles 37093806, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

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