ABSTRACT
This team examined Adam Smith’s concept of self-distancing. According to Smith, people are able to evaluate themselves only by taking the perspective of an “other”; that is, by imaginatively examining themselves from a self-distancing point of view—as an impartial spectator would. After reviewing Smith’s theory and empirical studies pertaining to it, the authors conclude by reflecting on their research experiences. They initially predicted that self-distancing would reduce people’s natural tendency to exaggerate the value and importance of their own lives and experiences, relative to the lives and experiences of others, and that it would increase their altruistic motivation. They had in mind a correspondingly simple conception of virtue, and thought of virtuous motivation as akin to altruistic motivation. They predicted that self-distancing would enhance virtuous motivation, so defined. One of the most striking effects of their interdisciplinary collaboration, they contend, was that it convinced them that they were wrong. Their work suggested that the effects of self-distancing on an individual’s tendency to act altruistically are complex, depending on features of an individual’s circumstances, as well as aspects of her relationships with other people, that the team had not originally considered. The primary benefit of their close interdisciplinary collaboration, they believe, was that it forced them to consider variables they had initially ignored.
