The Relationships between Perspective Taking, Bilingualism, and Gender

The aim of the present study was two-fold. First, it intended to investigate the relationship between perspective taking and bilingualism; second, it studied gender differences in perspective taking. To do so, a total of 100 balanced bilinguals and their 100 matching monolinguals (based on age, gender, and socioeconomic status) were selected. The participants completed a self-assessment sheet which could help the researchers to label them as bilinguals or monolinguals. A Persian translation of the Perspective Taking section of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index by Davis (1983) was administered. The questionnaire consisted of Likert-type questions which had positive and negative scores. Two independent-samples t-tests were run to compare the perspective taking of monolinguals to that of the bilinguals and to examine whether there is a difference between the female and male participants’ perspective taking. The results of the first t-test indicated that the bilinguals had higher perspective taking than the monolinguals. Furthermore, the second t-test showed that the female participants outperformed the male participants in perspective taking.