Social Decentering Scale – SDS

I get emotional over anyone’s crisis.

I would be likely to feel a rush of excitement and enthusiasm while trying to guess what was making someone I didn’t know shout with joy.

When I hear about other people’s problems that I’ve never personally faced, I imagine what my thoughts would be if I were in their situation.

I have wondered what people in some foreign countries think about various world problems.

Sometimes when I daydream about situations I’ve never experienced before, my daydreams evoke strong emotional reactions in me.

I feel the pain my closest friends feel when they are in trouble.

There are times when I become quite emotional while watching TV.

Sometimes when I’m considering how to react to a person, I plan out what to do, and then imagine how I would feel if someone acted towards me the way I was planning to act.

(Think of a particular close friend) I try to anticipate and “second guess” what my friend will say in reaction to alternate ways I might phrase a problem I want to discuss with them.

When I watch a news story where a child has just suffered the tragic loss of his/her parents, I feel some of the same feelings the child is probably having.

Sometimes I can understand what others are thinking by recalling the thoughts I have had when I experienced a similar situation.

If I thought about it, I could guess what people one hundred years from now will think about various major events that are occurring now.

I am likely to carefully consider what I know about a friend when planning on how to best approach them for something they might be reluctant to give or lend to me.

I would feel some of the same feelings as a close friend (think of a particular friend) if both his/her parents were killed in an automobile accident; my friend would probably have some feelings I would not feel, as well.

The way I think and behave serves as my general basis for understanding how people in general think and behave.

I would feel some of the feelings that a senior citizen I was talking to might have upon learning of the death of their spouse of fifty years.

I think about how I would handle situations that I hear or read about when confronting other people.

When I hear about a person’s problem that is similar to a problem I’ve experienced, I usually recall what I thought and did about my problem.

I usually get as excited as my best friend (think of a particular friend) when I find out something exciting has happened to him/her.

I get emotionally involved in news stories about the tragedies and joys of other people.

I take into consideration both the situation and a person’s cultural and ethnic background when I’m trying to understand the behaviour of someone I don’t know very well.

My emotions are easily aroused when I am imagining myself in another person’s predicament.

(Think of a particular friendship that you have recently developed). I have tried to understand how this person thinks by considering their background, personality, maturity, etc.

I can imagine how some of my attitudes, beliefs, and values might be different from the way they are if I had been raised in a different country’s culture.

I know my closest friend (think of a particular friend) so well that I even know how s/he thinks most of the time.

My emotional state sometimes seems determined by my best friend’s emotional state; when they’re down, I become down, when they’re up I become up.

I know some of the values, attitudes and thoughts associated with different cultural and ethnic groups.

I have learned about some of my feelings and emotional reactions by putting myself in situations confronting characters in movies and books, and other people in general.

I often think about what it would be like for me to be in other people’s shoes; what I would say and what I would think.

My closest friend and I would probably experience some of the same feelings in reaction to the news that s/he had suddenly come into a large sum of money though my feelings would be different in a few ways.

I tend to feel some of the pain a parent must feel about the accidental death of one of their children when I read about such a tragedy in the news.

(Think of a close friend who has never been in trouble with the law). This friend and I would probably have the same emotional reaction to being mistakenly arrested.

I can tell a lot about a stranger’s attitudes, beliefs and values, after talking to him/her for just a minute or two.

I pay attention to the things I learn about acquaintances as we become closer, so that I can better understand how they think.

I try to guess what the circumstances might be surrounding a stranger’s emotional outburst (crying, cheering, etc.) and my speculations would arouse an emotional reaction in me similar to the stranger’s reaction.

I sometimes think about how my closest friend will think about a controversial subject even before we start to discuss it.