| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 891268 | Personality and Individual Differences | 2012 | 5 Pages |
Adopting another’s visual perspective is exceedingly common and may underlie successful social interaction and empathizing with others. The individual differences responsible for success in perspective-taking, however, remain relatively undiscovered. We assessed whether gender and autistic personality traits in normal college student adults predict the ability to adopt another’s visual perspective. In a task differentially recruiting VPT-1 which involves following another’s line of sight, and VPT-2 which involves determining how another may perceive an object differently given their unique perspective (VPT-2), we found effects of both gender and autistic personality traits. Specifically, we demonstrate slowed VPT-2 but not VPT-1 performance in males and females with relatively high ASD-characteristic personality traits; this effect, however was markedly stronger in males than females. Results contribute to knowledge regarding ASD-related personality traits in the general population and the individual differences modulating perspective-taking abilities.
► The autism quotient was found to predict the ability to quickly adopt another’s visual perspective. ► Gender was found to modulate the relationship between autistic personality traits and visual perspective-taking. ► The autism quotient was more predictive of males’ perspective-taking ability relative to females’. ► Together, we detail the interactive nature of two individual differences measures in predicting visual perspective-taking.
