Role reversal enhances an understanding of the other, but not of the self

One of the key techniques of psychotherapeutic methods like psychodrama is role reversal, in which a client engages in the dramatic act of portraying another person. Such a portrayal is believed to provide insight not only into oneself, but into the perspective and experiences of the portrayed person. In this experimental study, university students (n = 57) were asked to recount a conflictual episode involving another person. In different conditions, they did so from either their own first-person perspective (“I”), from the third-person perspective (“she/he/they”), or from the “fictional first-person” perspective (speaking as “I” while portraying the other person), where the latter is akin to role reversal in psychodrama. A within-subject analysis of self-report questionnaires following each trial revealed that, relative to the first-person condition, role reversal failed to increase insight into one’s own behavior, but led to a significant increase in insight into the other person’s actions, as well as a sense of connectedness with that person. These results suggest that role reversal can increase empathy for someone with whom we are in conflict.