Perspective-taking increases emotionality and empathy but does not reduce harmful biases against American Indians: Converging evidence from the museum and lab

Given the problematic depictions of Native Americans and the pervasive cultural biases that exist, we sought to understand how contemporary educational practices in museums might encourage viewers to consider the context of their preconceptions rather than passively absorb conventional representations. In this two-part study, we tested whether and how viewers (mis)perceptions and interpretations of Native peoples might be influenced by encouraging empathy—specifically by taking the perspective of a Native individual depicted in a photograph they are visually analyzing. We randomly assigned participants in a lab setting (N = 120) and in a museum setting (N = 75) to one of three conditions (perspective-taking, stereotype-suppression, or control), and examined eye movements, self-reports, and verbal and written responses while participants viewed portrait photographs of American Indians. Notably, perspective-taking led viewers to interpret American Indians in a more emotional, empathetic, and human-centered manner than in control and suppression conditions. This was reflected in eye movements such that control and suppression participants attended to decorative features (e.g. jewelry) more than to the eyes of the depicted individual, whereas perspective-takers’ attention was more balanced. Similarly, perspective-takers used more empathetic and emotion-related language, whereas participants in control and suppression groups used more “objective” visually-descriptive language. Crucially, regardless of condition, cultural biases were stubbornly resistant to change and, in some cases, appeared even more frequently for participants adopting others’ perspectives. We argue that despite the positive outcomes associated with perspective-taking, the continued presence of cultural biases across conditions demonstrates that cultural competency-based interventions must be more complex and culturally-specific.