Abstract

An experiment investigates whether taking the perspective of a young woman with AIDS can affect empathy and self-other closeness towards the target-person, and improve general judgements towards the whole category of people with AIDS. The results show that when participants try to imagine the situation of the young woman (imagine "other"), the improvements mainly concern empathy and general feelings towards the category. The request to imagine themselves in the situation of the target (imagine "self") produces effects related to the activation of the self-concept, leading to an increase in the overlap between self and other representations, in distress, and to a stronger agreement with prosocial policies in favour of people with AIDS.