This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Van Boven, L. Articles by Loewenstein, G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Van Boven, L. Articles by Loewenstein, G. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Social Projection of Transient Drive States

University of Colorado at Boulder, vanboven{at}colorado.edu

George Loewenstein

Carnegie Mellon University

The authors hypothesized that people's predictions of how other people feel in emotionally arousing situations are often based on people's predictions of how they themselves would feel in those situations. Indeed, most participants in Study 1 reported predicting hungry hikers' feelings by mentally trading places with them, imagining what their own feelings would be in the hikers' situation. Because people's predictions of their own feelings tend to be biased in the direction of their current drive states, we hypothesized that mentally trading places would lead to social projection of transient drive states. In Study 2, participants' predictions of whether thirst or hunger would be more bothersome to hikers lost without food or water were biased in the direction of participants' own exercise-induced thirst. Furthermore, participants' predictions of how they would feel in the hikers' situation statistically mediated the effect of exercise on their predictions of the hikers' feelings.

Key Words: egocentrism • empathy gaps • perspective taking

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. T. Gilbert and T. D. Wilson Prospection: Experiencing the Future Science, September 7, 2007; 317(5843): 1351 - 1354. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. Loewenstein Defining affect Social Science Information, September 1, 2007; 46(3): 405 - 410. [PDF]

				C. Finkenauer, M. Gallucci, W. W. van Dijk, and M. Pollmann Investigating the Role of Time in Affective Forecasting: Temporal Influences on Forecasting Accuracy Pers Soc Psychol Bull, August 1, 2007; 33(8): 1152 - 1166. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. P. Lenton, A. Bryan, R. Hastie, and O. Fischer We Want the Same Thing: Projection in Judgments of Sexual Intent Pers Soc Psychol Bull, July 1, 2007; 33(7): 975 - 988. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. P. Rankin, M. L. Gorno-Tempini, S. C. Allison, C. M. Stanley, S. Glenn, M. W. Weiner, and B. L. Miller Structural anatomy of empathy in neurodegenerative disease Brain, November 1, 2006; 129(11): 2945 - 2956. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. H. Ditto, J. A. Jacobson, W. D. Smucker, J. H. Danks, and A. Fagerlin Context changes choices: a prospective study of the effects of hospitalization on life-sustaining treatment preferences. Med Decis Making, July 1, 2006; 26(4): 313 - 322. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. Loewenstein Projection Bias in Medical Decision Making Med Decis Making, January 1, 2005; 25(1): 96 - 105. [PDF]

				M. H. Davis, T. Soderlund, J. Cole, E. Gadol, M. Kute, M. Myers, and J. Weihing Cognitions Associated With Attempts to Empathize: How Do We Imagine the Perspective of Another? Pers Soc Psychol Bull, December 1, 2004; 30(12): 1625 - 1635. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. Decety and P. L. Jackson The Functional Architecture of Human Empathy Behav Cogn Neurosci Rev, June 1, 2004; 3(2): 71 - 100. [Abstract] [PDF]