Now that I see it your way, I choose you: Visuo-spatial perspective-taking affects partner selection during coalition formation

TL;DR

This study shows that imagining another person's viewpoint can influence who we choose as coalition partners, even when economic factors are the same.

Contribution

The study introduces visuo-spatial perspective-taking as a psychological factor influencing coalition formation, independent of economic incentives.

Findings

Participants who engaged in visuo-spatial perspective-taking showed increased liking and similarity for the target.

Both embodiers and disembodiers were more likely to select partners they had taken a perspective of.

The effect of perspective-taking on coalition formation was moderated by the strategy used (embodied vs. disembodied).

Abstract

Humans constantly form coalitions to achieve shared goals, and current theories of coalition formation assume that this process is solely guided by economic incentives. However, this assumption neglects the importance of psychological processes that contribute to coalition formation, which is especially problematic in scenarios where the economic motives of potential partners are (initially) indistinguishable. This research investigates the impact of one psychological process, visuo-spatial perspective-taking (VSPT), on coalition formation. We hypothesized that adopting the perspective of a potential coalition partner increases the likelihood of forming a coalition with them, compared to partners viewed from an egocentric standpoint. Importantly, this is not because this person is economically more advantageous, but because perspective-taking increases liking for and similarity to others. These effects, however, stem from an embodied simulation of physical closeness that only some participants (embodiers) but not others (disembodiers) engage in, suggesting a moderation of this preference by perspective-taking strategy. Across five experiments (N = 2,340), participants completed a VSPT task before engaging in a hypothetical coalition formation negotiation with the targets presented during the VSPT task. Meta-analytically, our data suggests that embodiers indeed showed increased liking and similarity after perspective-taking, while disembodiers did not. However, unexpectedly, not only embodiers but also disembodiers selected partners whose perspective they took more often as a coalition partner. We discuss potential explanations for this preference in disembodiers, implications of our work for theories of coalition formation, and for research on different strategies for perspective-taking.

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