Mettersi nei panni dell’altro: una questione anche relazionale.

[Autom. eng. transl.] Introduction: The cognitive ability to put oneself in the other's shoes is an important predictor of prosocial motivations and behaviors having positive repercussions on well-being. But what makes people more or less inclined to take the other's perspective? An individual propensity? The characteristics of the subject with which they empathize? The specific relationship that links them to this subject? The group context to which both belong? The study aims to verify to what extent the ability of subjects to take the point of view of another member of their own family depends on themselves (actor effect), on the other (partner effect), the specific relationship between the two (effect relationship) and the reference group (group effect). Method 432 subjects, belonging to 108 families composed of 4 people, compiled Long's Dyadic Perspective Taking Scale (1990) relating to each of the other 3 members of their family group. The data were analyzed using the Social Relation Model (SRM, Kenny and LaVoie, 1994) which allows to break down the variance of the scores into different components: actor, partner, relationship and group effect. Results The tested model appears to be significant as a whole (2 (230) = 295.608, p = 0.002; NNFI = 0.966; CFI = 0.971; RMSEA = 0.052 (90% CI = 0.032-0.068)). Specifically, all the actor effects are significant, the partner effect of the father and the elder brother, all relationship effects except for the one between father and elder son and the group effect. Conclusions In addition to an individual propensity, the ability to assume the perspective of others is partly attributable also to relational and group aspects. The SRM turns out to be an adequate methodology for the study of constructs that, similarly to empathy, reveal orientations and interpersonal behaviors.