Today, in an article titled "It Pays To Know Your Opponent: Success In Negotiations Improved By Perspective-taking" (Science Daily), I read of a study looking at what the researchers called "perspective taking" versus "empathy." When I read the SD article, I was troubled because the either/or proposition seemed simplistic and also unrealistic given what we know about how people respond to each other both consciously and unconsciously.
From the war room to the board room, negotiations are a part of everyday life. Successful negotiations demand a clear understanding of one’s opponent. But what approach should one take to achieve such an understanding of one’s opponent in everyday negotiations?
[Researchers] asked a similar question and found that success in negotiations depends on focusing on the head and not the heart. In other words, it is better to take the perspective of negotiation opponents rather than empathize with them.
Perspective-taking, according to the study published in the April 2008 issue of Psychological Science, a publication of the Association for Psychological Science, involves understanding and anticipating an opponent’s interests, thoughts, and likely behaviors, whereas empathy focuses mostly on sympathy and compassion for another.
“Perspective takers are able to step outside the constraints of their own immediate, biased frames of reference,” wrote the authors. “Empathy, however, leads individuals to violate norms of equity and equality and to provide preferential treatments.”
(I would like to see and evaluate for myself the research from which that conclusion about empathy was drawn.)
I found the original research article [download "Why It Pays to Get Inside the Head of Your Opponent" here] to see how the research was conducted. After reading it, I think the results are not clear-cut or well-defined, and
