Role Taking

Role taking is the capacity to imagine another person’s perspective, and how one is viewed by others. This has been investigated as part of the literature on empathy, specifically the cognitive component of empathy, sometimes called perspective taking or theory of mind (ToM). Role taking encompasses one’s ability to imagine another person’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, desires, and intentions, even if these are different from one’s own. This capacity is crucial for social interaction at every level, both in dyadic and group interactions, and particularly for making sense of others’ behavior, predicting it, and being able to respond to it appropriately. Deficits in this ability characterize neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism. This entry discusses these issues following an overview of the development of role taking from ...