The role of mental phrases in perspective taking in describing inter-group events

1. 15th GENERAL MEETING OF EAESP Opatija, Croatia, June 10-14 2008 The role of mental phrases in perspective taking in describing inter-group events Orsolya Vincze & János László University of Pécs Hungary Research was established by the support of

2. PERSPECTIVE-TAKING IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY • Perspective-taking - social functioning • Taking the perspective of another person can • facilitate prosocial behavior (Batson, 1991) • reduce social aggression (Richardson et al., 1994) • reduce errors in social judgment (Savitsky et al., 2005) • perspective-taking - attribution • Interpersonal context • actor-observer bias (Jones & Nisbett, 1971) • Perspective produces different explanations of behaviors

3. attributionand intergroup biases • Intergroup context • The ultimate attribution error (Pettigrew, 1979) • Other forms of intergroup biases • Lingusitic Intergroup Bias (Maas et al., 1998) • Infrahumanization(Leyens et al., 2000) • Dehumanisation • mental states(Kozak et al., 2008) • Research showed that subjects, who scored high on a prejudice scale, attributed significantly fewer mental states to minority than to their own social category

4. Role of perspective-taking • In experimental settings • Perspective-taking in reducing stereotype (Galinsky & Moscowitz, 2000; Vescio, Sechrist, & Paolucci, 2003; Galinsky & Ku, 2004) • increases the perceived similarity toward the target • positive evaluation of the target • positive attitude toward the whole group the target belonged to • Prespective-taking and infrahumanization(Leyens et al., 2003) • people fail to infrahumanize out-group members whose perspective they have taken • Perspective-taking and guilt • Feelings of guilt postively correlated with taking the perspective of the harmed person (Leith & Baumeister, 1998; Zebel, Doosje, Spears,2005)

5. Role of perspective-taking extended attention to mental states of the target (Batson et al., 1997; Davis et al., 1996) target’ thoughts, feelings, intentions, results in subtle interpretation of the behaviors; increases the likelihood of considering situational factors; decreases intergroup biases(Finlay & Stephan, 2000; Galinsky & Ku, 2004) Schütz & Baumeister (1999)

6. Narrative perspective-taking and empathy (linguistic level) • Perspective-taking in narrative by linguistic means • Narrative perspective-taking can be thought of as a relational concept between the producer and the recipient of narrative (Bal, 1985) • One way to establish this relation is to express a character’s inner states (Wiebe, 1991) psychological perspective (Uspensky, 1974) • Beliefs, emotions, intentions of the character • can influence the meaning of the narrated event and • opens the way for participatory affective responses (Gerrig, 1993) • leades the reader to form the landscape of the action according to the landscape of consciousness (Bruner, 1986)

7. Study • We analyzed Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1867-1918) in history schoolbooks (for secondary school students) published between 1900 and 2004. • Books were arranged in decades • We studied the distribution of tagged mental states (emotional and cognitive words and phrases) between in-group and out-group. • We also examined the distribution of mental states in time.

8. Group narratives and social identity • Group narratives are carriers and at the same time mediators of group identity. • Besides the facts appears in the narratives (especially in history books) they describe events in a particular perspective. • Displaying of the character’s • consciousness (what does she thinks and feels), • capability for acting (passive or active) • evaluation of her actions (positive or negative) are subtle narrative tools for mediating group identity (Liu & László, 2008) • By these narrative tools actions can be described on a manner that make the event acceptable according to the group identity.

9. Method • For analyzing the history school books we used Nooj linguistic analyzer software • Local grammars were applied to identify linguistic expressions of mental states • Perspective module (Pólya, Ferenczhalmy,Fülöp, Vincze, László, 2008) • Cognitive (Vincze & László, 2006) • Emotion (Fülöp & Laszló, 2006) • Intention (ferenczhalmy & lászló, 2006)

10. Graphs and analyses • Perspective module • consists verbs and nouns - itself express inner sates - and mental phrases. • The XML form produced by Nooj was loaded into Atlas-ti (content analyzer program) to identify thematic roles (Hungarian or Austrian characters and groups )

11. Resultsdistribution of mental states • In general Hungarians produce significantly more mental actions (cognitive and emotional) than Austrians. • Considering the time: • There is no significant difference between the two group in the books published at the beginning of the 20th century, during the Monarchy period. • From the 1930 tagged mental states are more frequently appear related to Hungarian characters.

12. Distribution of cognitions and emotions • Dividing mental states into cognitive and emotional actions, we can see that: • Hungarian characters express cognitive and emotional states significantly more often • At the beginning of the century there appears a claim of expressing positive attitude toward Austrians. • However, in the course of the decades, Hungarian perspective becomes more emphasized by increasing frequencies of cognitive phrases

13. 5 different narratives exist in the Hungarian history concerning the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy Four of them became canonical in school books, in one century about the same event POSITIVE EMOTIONS NEGATIVE EMOTIONS COGNITIVE PHRASES Result are in relative frequency (max: 1% of total words) DISTRIBUTION OF MENTAL STATES HU AUS

14. 1900-1920 Apologetics narrative in the period of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy mutual perspective emotional consequences for identity construction: loyalty and restricted independence. national identity is embedded into imperial identity POSITIVE EMOTIONS NEGATIVE EMOTIONS COGNITIVE PHRASES DISTRIBUTION OF MENTAL STATES1900-1920 HU AUS

15. 1930-1940 National conservativenarrative single own group perspective emotional consequences for identity construction: emphasized independence, uniqueness POSITIVE EMOTIONS NEGATIVE EMOTIONS COGNITIVE PHRASES DISTRIBUTION OF MENTAL STATES1930-1940 HU AUS

16. 1950-1980 Marxist narrative Hungarian perspective is predominant, but mainly of working class. only negative emotions conflicts are sharpened identity consequences struggle for independence and autonomy versus intra-group conflict. Stress is laid on cognitive elaboration. POSITIVE EMOTIONS NEGATIVE EMOTIONS COGNITIVE PHRASES DISTRIBUTION OF MENTAL STATES1950-1980 HU AUS

17. 1990-2000 Progress narrative no emotions identity consequences negotiated compromise Emphasis on the economic development induced by the Monarchy However, collapse of the Monarchy was necessary POSITIVE EMOTIONS NEGATIVE EMOTIONS COGNITIVE PHRASES DISTRIBUTION OF MENTAL STATES1950-1980 HU AUS

18. discussion • Linguistic markers of mental states are narrative tools, which: • promote perspective-taking of characters through empathy processes • display emotional qualities concerning relationships • The role of their identity-mediator function reveal itself in the manner they emphasize the in-group perspective. • The period of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy is narrated in a way that maintains the continuity of identity even as the events themselves fade further into the past: • they displays the event in accordance with identity demands, both in the actual (simultaneously with the event) and the retrospective narratives. • Historical narratives can be identified by the distribution of mental states

19. Thank you for your attention!