Controlled perspective taking

How to spot it

Say their reason back in one sentence, the version they would sign rather than the weak one you can beat, and ask whether you have it. If they add something you did not have, the route was working.

The research behind the term

The term is not our invention. It comes from published research, and what follows is what that research found — our own synthesis of the published abstract, not a translation of the original.

What it found

• Social cognitive neuroscience is organised into four areas: understanding others, understanding the self, control of the self, and processes at the self–other interface.
• The distinction between automatic and controlled processes corresponds to different brain regions.
• A further distinction is drawn between internally focused processes, which concern the mental state of oneself or another, and externally focused ones, which concern visible features and actions.

How it found it

Review of research using the tools of cognitive neuroscience — neuroimaging and neuropsychology — to study social phenomena.

What it means for empathy

Understanding others and understanding the self are not separate skills; they rest on overlapping systems, so self-awareness trains empathy at the same time.

Practised in

The term does not stay a definition. It appears inside missions where the pattern happens in real time and you have to recognise it as it happens to you.

• The One Who Argued Against It

  Level 3

• The Evening Two People Need You

  Level 5