How The Social Mindfulness: Skill And Will To Navigate The Social World

Social mindfulness: Skill and will to navigate the social world.
Authors:
Van Doesum, Niels J., Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, [e-mail]
Van Lange, Dion A. W., Vossius Gymnasium, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Van Lange, Paul A. M., Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, [e-mail]
Address:
Van Doesum, Niels J., Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, Netherlands,[e-mail]
Source:
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 105(1), Jul, 2013. pp. 86-103
Publisher:
US: American Psychological Association
ISSN:
0022-3514 (Print)
1939-1315 (Electronic)
Language:
English
Keywords:
empathy, perspective taking, prosocial, social mindfulness, social value orientation, skill, will, decision-making, choice
Abstract:
Although one may not always see it, social life often involves choices that make people act in ways that are mindful of others or not. We adopt an interdependence theoretical approach to the novel concept of social mindfulness,
Social mindfulness as we define and operationalize it extends the focus on outcome interdependence by including the notion that people’s behavioral choices and actions may codetermine the range of possible outcomes for others, rather than just the outcome itself (cf. Kelley et al., 2003; Van Lange & Rusbult, 2012). In order to investigate these specific instances of interdependence, we asked participants in our experiments to imagine being in a dyadic situation in which choices by the one would leave or limit outcome options for the