•People assume that everyone shares their own reference point, even if they are told that is not the case.•If prompted to think about a specific other person who has a different reference point, then predictions are less biased.•The experiment includes a cognitive test, which implies that bias from one’s own reference point is not merely confusion.•It’s easier to understand the behavior of another person if you consider the history that person has lived through. Reference points formed by initial endowments influence individual decisions. This experiment tests whether an individual can predict the behavior of other people who have different reference points. Despite financial incentives for being correct, players fail to imagine themselves in another person’s shoes. A low endowment player generally cannot predict the behavior of those who were assigned high endowments, and vice versa, when asked about group behavior. Instead of considering the perspectives of others, a low endowment player predicts that all others will act as if they all had low endowments. This controlled experiment helps explain why it is difficult to understand the perspectives of other people, while also demonstrating that it is possible when a player is specifically prompted to consider an individual in a different circumstance.