Perspective Taking and Intergroup Helping Intentions:The Moderating Role of Power Relations

摘要

People are more willing to help those who belong to their own groups than to anout-group. Research on perspective taking has shown that many forms of in-groupfavoritism disappear when people are led to take the perspective of the othergroup. The current research explores the possibility of increasing the level of inter-group helping by a perspective-taking manipulation. An experiment in a Polish-Czech borderland community high school demonstrated that Polish students whowere made to imagine that they became members of an out-group (perspective-taking manipulation) were more willing to help out-group members. The moder-ating role of perceived power is discussed in the context of perspective-takingtheory.