“Try to see it my way”: What influences social perspective taking among college students?

The ability to understand and incorporate other perspectives into one’s own perspective is an important overarching outcome of higher education and a necessary precursor for the development of most higher-order learning outcomes. Utilizing a multi-institutional survey of 21,548 college seniors, we examined background characteristics and cocurricular experiences that are associated with social perspective taking. No specific cocurricular interventions (e.g., service learning, leadership experiences) were shown to be significantly related to social perspective taking, suggesting the need for greater attention and intentionality toward purposefully cultivating this vital outcome; however, self-awareness and sociocultural issues discussions were the largest influences on seeing others’ perspectives.